The American Dream

This is a graph published in 2011. In this image we can see a lot of percentages. It's a poll about the American Dream. There are very importants information. First, we notice that 57% of people think that they are achieving the American dream according to them, it's means with their definition. 62% of people think that their parents have achieved the American Dream. We can explain this number because the graph's young generation ( people who are between 18 and 40 years old) have parents who had lived at the times of the beginning of the American Dream. During this period, the consumer society was very important and present in the population mind. So a lot of people were living an "American Dream life" based on the American Model. Then, we see the percentages of people who want to achieve the American Dream and who don't. I'm very surprised because 54% is a lot. I could never have imagined that so many American people don't believe in the American Dream. However, the other number seems to me more comprehensible. 

Therefore, all of them have a most important goal to achieve the American Dream way of life. The most popular reason is having money for the retirement, it seems logical because when we think that in America the gorvernement doesn't give money to retired people, so the population has to save money for the future by themselves. The second most important goal is owning a home. It's true that in American movies, we often see characters owning their big houses in the suburbs. It's a true American Dream. Finally, we see information about the poll, how many men and women have answered and their age.


Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17th, 1706. He was a printer, writer and a American politician man. He was one of the most famous self made men and he is part of the American Dream. When he was young he left Boston to go to Philadelphia, even if it was very complicated in his times he reached it and became an apprentice printer, and his first dream came true. When he was older he started working actively for independence. He was elected by the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of Independence with John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson.  In 1776 he signed the Declaration of Independence. This declaration is very important to the freedom of America because she says that the United States is not a British colony. Franklin died on April 17th, 1790. In the American Dream and in the US philosophy,  freedom is one of the most important values. The economic freedom or the professional freedom (being one's own boss) are two aspects of the American ideal beliefs. So, Benjamin Franklin is a model to follow because of his career, in fact he was the son of a soap maker and he became a very powerful politician by his own means, and also because of his importance in the contruction of the foundation of the American dream.


Conclusion about the American Dream.

First of all, the American Dream is a very strong belief for everyone, it is the symbol of hope to the immigrants and the ideal life for american people.  Nevertheless, it is also a very idealistic notion. At the beginning of the American Dream, all was very new and it was a new conception of life for the people. After the war, an affluent society was developped and a new way of life appeared. There is a goal to achieve which would be being his own boss, having his own house or having money for retirement. To sum-up, it is to be free. Nowadays, we can think that the American Dream belongs to the past but it seems that people's goals are the same, the only difference is that we don't call them : the American Dream.  

Statistic about the American Dream

This graph is not surprising to me because we can see that opportunity comes first and this is the basic value of the American Dream, indeed, for a lot of emigrants this is a land where everyone can work their way up and achieve upward mobility. Then, freedom ranks second.
To explain that we can remember the Founding Father who were the seven politicians who signed the declaration of independence in1776 and 11 years after wrote the Constitution in 1787.
 It was too, a welcoming land for the Pilgrim Fathers who were Puritans who traveled to the USA in 1620 aboard the mayflower to escape religious persecutions in Great Britain. Since this time, American has become a symbole of freedom and an example of democraty.
Financial security aspect is a very important aspect too, for the people need to have monney to meet their own family's needs. We can oppose it to wealth which shows more a kind of desire to strike it rich. Indeed, we can speak of wealth when the people want to meet needs that they don't have like a huge house, lots of cars, the last technological products... etc
Family is an idea which is liked by everybody. Everybody wants to have the perfect model of family which means, two working parents, children who have a very prestigious education and who will be part of the consumer society.
The item of happiness can regroup all the other categories, because when the people manage to be rich, with a lot of hard work and will power, when they have a perfect family, when they need nothing else, they imagine that they will be happy... But as is often the money can't buy happiness ! 


This document redefines the American Dream as the people see it nowadays.We can see that the values aren't the same because the society has changed a lot over the last centuries. We notice a kind of fear of the future for example when 47% of the people are dreaming of money for their retirement. It's true that in America the system it is very different from the european one. It's more individualistic and almost everything is private. When in Europe there is the social security, in America the people have to pay for all their medical treatments and save for their retirement by buying pension funds, for example.
The second notion is to have their own house, which is a heritage of the American Dream which made dreaming the emigrants dream in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Because to have their house we have to have money, the basic element of the American dream.
In this graph we can see a kind of evolution in the demands and need of the people because of drastic changes in society.