Persuasive Speech: The American Dream is Dying

What is the American Dream? Is it still prevalent in our society today? Perhaps it may still exist for a few, but it is surely dying. Everyone dreams of the prosperity, social mobility, and equal opportunities that come with hard work, or “The American Dream, but the achievability of the dream has only become much more difficult since the term was introduced a century ago due to economic inequality.

Belonging to a lower economic class definitely makes The American Dream much more difficult to achieve.

         According to the Economic Innovation Group, “The majority (51 percent) of counties in the United States exert a negative impact on the economic mobility of low-income children…Three out of five of today’s children are growing up in a county that has historically failed to provide their most disadvantaged youth a leg up.” Families living in lower class or disadvantaged counties in America face multiple economic challenges that hinder their ability to find prosperity and social mobility. Children growing up in these families were also found to grow up with less opportunities and a plethora of disadvantages, making it difficult for them to find success and move up from the economic class they grew up in. In contrast, the children of wealthy families were found to have more advantages and opportunities for success, thus making the American Dream easier to achieve for them.

        The American Dream is dying and will continue to die if nothing is done to make it more accessible by encouraging economic growth in disadvantaged counties. The American Dream is a dream of equal opportunities, prosperity, and mobility. Without economic equality, the American Dream is made closely impossible for those belonging to lower economic status. 

https://eig.org/dcieop