With money gang members are able to buy the neccesary products needed to gain power and respect in the streets. Nothing else mattered. I got mad recognition-any girl. I would walk into a place and everyone would kwow who I was. Because of money I could fit anywhere in society.
Consumption rules the ghetto like no other community.
It is because of this very reason that sadly, the money acheived by gang members provides no long term economic success. This is the most important way in which the Ghetto Dream differs from the American dream. While America is also very consumer capitialistic, the idea of economic stabilty is very alive in the dream. Success is not only for the individual but is understood to be something to be then passed down from generation to generation through some form of economic and social security. The rules of American dream imply that each following generation is expected to do better because they are born into the success of the dream.