It’s a Myth

“It’s a myth,” G said, without hesitation, leaving no room for ambiguity. “The idea that America is a meritocracy, that it’s the land of the free […] it’s a fairy tale of that being able to be true”. But how did this fairy tale fall so far from being an inspiring call for freedom and prosperity? 

G, the child of Southeast Asian immigrants, grew up with a front row seat to what many would call the epitome of the American Dream. Her parents came to this country with nothing, not knowing how to speak the language, and were able to build their own small business and provide a comfortable life for their two daughters. Seeing their success in the face of such obstacles should surely convince anyone that America is the land of opportunity, where anyone can find their way through determination and hard work. But G, like so many others, has also seen the harsh reality that too many Americans don’t experience this kind of success.

If you were born in 1940, there is a 90% chance that you ended up in a higher rank of income distribution than your parents. Being born in 1980 decreased that chance to 40%. The cost of a college education has more than doubled in the last half century even when adjusted for inflation. It is these trends and more that have led the generation now entering the workforce to believe that the “American Dream” that may have sent them to college is now dead. 

This stark generational difference in attitude towards the American Dream as a concept creates a feedback loop in which the changes that might make social mobility more realistic are resisted because of an assumption by the older generation that if they could do it, anyone can. For G and her parents, these differences manifest in how they each view some of the most fundamental aspects of society. Her parents idolize billionaires and entrepreneurship, while G simply hopes for a world in which everyone has their basic needs met. 

The truth is, the American Dream only ever existed as much as people believed it did. And to G and so many others, it is becoming more clear that it never did. 

G is…

• 23 Years-Old
• Female, Cisgender
• Southeast Asian
• Middle Class
• Lesbian