The United States has abandoned its young people, and young Americans no longer believe in the American Dream
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Today, Americans are more likely to achieve the American Dream outside of the United States.
The idea of being able to start from scratch and still succeed through hard work and dedication has been around in the United States for centuries, and some of the earliest immigrants came to the country with this goal in mind, eventually creating some of the things that Americans still use today, like Levi jeans, AT&T, and Colgate toothpaste.
For centuries, most Americans have achieved economic success by earning more money than their parents, allowing their families to climb the economic ladder.
The idea is that if you do well in school, go to college, work hard, and save, you'll be in a better financial position than the previous generation.
However, this may no longer hold true nowThe rate of upward mobility has declined dramatically over the past few decades, while 90 per cent of children born in the 1940s earn more than their parents, compared to only 50 per cent of those born in the 1980s.
While you may be able to name some of the people who have recently risen from poverty and achieved success, like Howard Schultz, Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Lauren, or even yourself, when it comes to the American Dream and overall economic mobility, I'm referring to millions of Americans, not just a few exceptions.
George Carlin said, ".It's called the American Dream because you have to be in a deep slumber to believe it.
One of the most interesting things I've found is that you're more likely to live the American dream outside of the United StatesOne reason for this is known in socioeconomics as the intergenerational persistence of poverty.
Basically, those who grew up in poverty are more likely to remain trapped in poverty as adults, and the cycle can be passed on from generation to generation.
In 2023, Professor Zachary Paralin and his team at the University of Sacramento discovered:If a child grows up in American poverty, they are 42% more likely to fall into poverty as an adult.
By contrast, Denmark and Germany have only a quarter of the intergenerational poverty rates in the United States.
Not just these two countries, but Australia and the United Kingdom as well.
This finding, along with many other related studies, concludes,Upward mobility and economic success are a bit like a relay race, where you pass the baton to future generations, and depending on your family's economic background, you start the race from a different starting line.
If your household income is in the bottom 20%, you will always be last.
If your household income falls into the top 20%, you will be at the forefront.
Once the starting gun goes off, everyone starts running, and if you can't outrun the other teams, or if you start farther, you'll pass the baton to your kids late in the race.
With the arrival of a new generation, the baton will be passed to a new person, and your child will pass it on to your grandchildren, and so on.
Over time, if nothing changes, the gap between your family and the rest of the team will widen and become increasingly difficult to bridge.
Being able to bridge this gap is key to achieving the American dream, and research has found that it is easier to achieve this in Denmark than in the United States.
But how does this happen?
Time goes back to the 60s of the 20th century. In the 60s, advances in computer technology, greater openness to the international community, and a growing labor force lifted a large number of people out of poverty.
In 1971, 61% of adults belonged to the middle class, living a middle-class life, going to Disneyland, drinking coffee at Starbucks.
But in 2021, that number dropped to 50%.
The proportion of future generations of the population belonging to the middle class continues to shrink, with 59% of baby boomers in their 20s falling into the middle class, while millennials in their 20s that number drops to 53%.
AbsolutelySome lucky ones rose up to the upper class, but for most Americans, most either stagnated or declined. This is exacerbated in terms of wealth and economic success.
The first thing that comes to people's minds when they talk about wealth and economic success is income – how much money have you earned this year?Wait a minute.
However,From 1970 to 2020, the median income of the middle class increased by 50%, while the median income of the upper class increased by 69% and the lower class by 45%.
Despite a significant increase in paycheck compared to 40 years ago, real average earnings have barely changed since 1978.
In economics, real average income refers to how much money you make after accounting for inflation.
Basically, if you make $40,000 a year and last year you used that money to buy a month's worth of food and spent $200, but this year if you keep your income at $40,000 and the food now needs $220, your real income goes down because you can't buy more food with the same money.
When it comes to a business, how much revenue it is able to generate depends on the productivity of its employees.
The more productive the employees, the more the company can earn.
The problem, however, isSince the 70s of the 20th century, most of the increased revenue has gone to executives, not employees.
In the 70s of the 20th century, CEOs earned 20 times more than ordinary workers, and today CEOs earn 296 times more than ordinary workers.
This inequality is evident in all areas, with the bottom 90 per cent increasing their real annual salaries by 15 per cent since 1979, while the top 1 per cent have increased by 138 per cent.
However, income is not the only measure of wealth, and in economics, one way to measure expenses is by using the Cost of Living Index.
Basically, this index shows how many days a typical worker needs to work in a year to earn enough to cover the main expenses of a family of four, including food, housing, medical care, transportation, and education.
In 1984, the average primary expenditure for a family of four was about $13,227, and the typical male worker would need to work about 30 weeks to cover those expenses.
But in 2018, the average primary cost of living for a family of four is now $54,441, and the typical male worker now needs to work for 53 weeks to cover those costs. It is worth noting that there are only 52 weeks in a year.
Actually,Ordinary workers are no longer just living like a year, they are actually worse off than before.
However, more important than income and spending is the share of total income, which is basically who holds the largest percentage of income in the United States.
In the 1970s, the middle class made up more than 60% of the population and owned the bulk of the country's wealth.
This makes sense, since the majority of people in this country are middle-class.
However, it wasn't until 2008 that everything changed.
In the Great Recession of 2008, financial markets collapsed, and millions of people lost their savings, jobs, and homes.
This was the final blow to the wealth of the lower middle classes, which to this day are widening in income disparity, shrinking in the middle class, and gradually capturing more of the total income.
In the 1970s, they had only 29% of their total income, and in 2020 this figure almost doubled to 50%.
Today, the wealth gap between upper-class and middle-class families is at an all-time high.
So, what about the American dream of equal opportunity?
At the heart of the American Dream is the idea of reaching the core.
The philosophy is that as long as you are determined and a hard worker, you will succeed, whether you come from a rich or poor family.
You just need to study hard, get good grades, attend a top university, and graduate with an offer Xi of a high-paying job.
While this sounds good in theory, the problem is that in practice it doesn't work.
The American system is riddled with corruption, nepotism, favoritism, and a closed system of power that stands in the way of true equality of opportunity.
Economist Raj Cheddy knows a lot about this topic.
He and his team found thatTop universities like Harvard, Caltech, and New York University are more inclined to admit children of alumni and private school students.
As a result, these top colleges are 77 times more likely to admit children from America's wealthiest families than children from the bottom 20 percent.
A lot of wealthy parents buy places at top universities directly for their children.
And it's not just the education system, it's the job market.
A study by Matthew Steiger found that companies don't always hire the most qualified candidates, and often they hire the children of current employees who earn almost 20 percent more than they should have earned.
The problem is,The more people believe in the American Dream and its unlimited promotion system, the more they will blame themselves for the broken system.
If you didn't get into your dream university, you'd think it was because I wasn't smart enough;If you don't get your dream job, you'll feel like I'm not good enough, and I'll never be good enough.
However, the reality is that many Americans have struggled to climb the American ladder of promotion.
In 1994, the U.S. Department of Housing conducted an experiment involving more than 4,500 participants.
They have provided an opportunity for thousands of low-income families to move from a bad neighborhood to a better one. After 16 years, they assessed the impact of this relocation and the results showed:Children under the age of 13 at the time of moving were 27 percent more likely to go to college and earn 30 percent more than the control group.
This finding, as well as subsequent research, proves two reasons: First, in the United States, the school system is funded through property taxes.
In general, more expensive neighborhoods mean more money goes to the local school system, so some schools can afford smart blackboards, delicious lunches, and valet parking, while others struggle to pay for air conditioning in hot weather. Secondly, in economics, they call it the bowling alley theory.
Basically, the study found that regions that organized more bowling teams and teams had a higher level of upward chances.
The idea is that having a bowling team means a higher level of social engagement, stronger connections and a network that helps the community as a whole.
Young Americans have been drawn to the American Dream for decades, and if you study hard, Xi college, follow the rules, and you'll succeed.
But what was once a reality for most Americans is now just a fading dream.
So the American Dream is dead, and young Americans no longer believe in the American Dream.
They also understand that it is not their fault that many of the difficulties they are experiencing now, and that they have been abandoned by American society.