American Dream

{{hatnote|For the conspiracy theory promoting movie, see [[The American Dream (film)]]}}
[[File:Americandream.jpeg|thumb|165px|A billboard promoting the American Dream [[Irony meter|during the]] [[Great Depression]].]]
{{media}}{{economics}}
{{cquote|It's called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.|||[[George Carlin]],<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q Carlin on the American Dream]</ref> [[Irony|the guy who realized the American Dream for himself]]}}
{{cquote|Sadly, the American dream is dead.|||[[Donald Trump]],<ref>[https://youtu.be/a5pYa5cxLEo Donald Trump: "The American Dream is Dead" (2015)]</ref> [[Irony|the greatest orange president of America]]}}

The '''American Dream''' means the [[American]] value and common political promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".  It aims to create and/or maintain a United States where any American contributing to the common good can live a satisfactory lifestyle.  In particular it promises that community-contributing Americans can securely acquire basic life necessities, and further pursue their dreams through making the [[choice theory | right choices]].  Part of this equal opportunity ethos includes encouragement for immigrants to find health and wealth in the USA. However as the "American Dream" is elusive to 
much
 most of the US population, immigrants often end up as short-handed suckers working in the back of a gas station for well below the cost of living, before a 2 hour commute to a crowded, multi-family home.

The stereotypical "American dream" is widespread ownership rates of suburban homes with white-picket fences, nuclear families each with a couple children and a pet dog, ice cream dates in High School, a smiling wife who casually holds a shotgun while watching her husband cook BBQ in the backyard, and a strong happy, community. 

==Origin==
James Truslow Adams popularized the term in his 1931 book ''Epic of America''.<ref>
[https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/american-dream/students/thedream.html The American Dream] - "James Truslow Adams, in his book The Epic of America, which was written in 1931, stated that the American dream is 'that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.' (p.214-215)"
</ref>

In the 1950s, television shows of the era, such as ''Father Knows Best'' and ''Leave It To Beaver'', promoted the American Dream.  These programs displayed a supposedly honest, suburban lifestyle.  In this scenario, the father was the [[Nuclear family |head of the household]] and the pinnacle of [[knowledge]].  The mother had no interest in working outside the home.  Instead, she [[Kinder, Küche, Kirche |did the household chores]], aided by all the fancy new gadgets that made housework a breeze.  In a change from before World War II, smaller families were encouraged, with two or three [[children]] being the new norm.<ref>{{wpa | Baby boomers}} </ref> Lifestyles and standards of living may change, but the fundamental concept of the American Dream remains the same.

While influential during the fifties, the Dream concept came under some criticism from [[hippie]]s and [[New Left| associated radicals]] during the sixties for supposedly placing [[Greed |too much importance on the accumulation of material wealth]]. This is somewhat ironic, since the definition of the American Dream does not necessarily have anything to do with becoming wealthy; it is [[Overgeneralization | all about]] having a better life and realizing one's aspirational dream(s).

Works such as Arthur Miller's ''The Death of a Salesman'' (1949) point out that people may have difficulty in achieving this idealized lifestyle.

==The 50s==
Today, the 1950s brings up nostalgia of an [[golden age]] for extreme members in the [[Republican]] Party, replacing the [[Gilded Age]] (this being the golden age of 1950s [[conservative]]s).  It is interesting to note that  [[Dwight Eisenhower|the man in charge]] at the time was responsible for the Interstate Highway System, [[NASA]], the expansion of Social Security, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the [[Orval Faubus|combating racial segregation in Arkansas]], the ''90%*'' marginal income tax for top earners,<ref group="note">For reference, Republicans freaked out when [[Obama]] let it return to an astonishing... 39.6 percent. *Not what the rich actually paid for their full income, just the last tier.</ref> and warned against a "[[military-industrial complex]]."<ref group="note">To be fair, there are a number of side benefits associated with this, including massive investments in academic research, both pure and applied, thanks to the experience of the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II, and the wonders of peace through military strength. </ref> These Republicans are not necessarily wrong, but not in the way they expect.

==Chinese copycat==
{{main|Chinese Dream}}
Perhaps the most contemptible derivative the American Dream can be found in Red [[China]], where the "Chinese Dream" has been adopted by [[Xi Jinping]] as a government slogan. It essentially boils down to "hey, here's some more [[money]] in your pockets so you can [[handwave]] the abuses of our [[dictator]]ship for a few more years." On the national level, the Chinese Dream seems dangerously expansionist, given China's territorial ambitions in Asia and quest for regional, then global hegemony, subverting democracy in the process.

==Not to be confused with==
*"Americone Dream," Ben & Jerry's ice cream tribute to [[Stephen Colbert]]
*Virgil "Dusty" Rhodes, a professional wrestler whose ring nickname was "The American Dream" 
]eef you weeeel...


==See also==
*[[Poverty]]

==External links==
*[https://archive.org/details/prelinger ''The Prelinger Archives''] contains loads of educational films from the [[good old days]] as well as excellent [[Propaganda|information]] on those [[red-baiting|sneaky commies]]. Of particular note are the productions by [https://archive.org/details/coronet_instructional_videos ''Coronet Instructional Films''].

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
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[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:United States]]
[[Category:United States history]]
[[Category:Culture]]

Categories: Economics, United States, United States history, Culture