Why Is The American Dream Alive

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Pages: 2

Over 14 million Americans are unemployed; however, this does not change the writer’s perspective of the American dream. To many, the dream is to one day own their home, car, and live a comfortable and happy life with their family. While nearly half of Americans say the dream is dead, others disagree and believe it is still alive and they are correct. An example is Adam Shepard, who was able to achieve the American Dream with nothing but 25 dollars and an empty duffel bag. The American dream is alive and anyone can achieve it.
First, the American dream is unique to each person trying to achieve it. The Pew Research Center says, “The American dream means different things to different people, however”(Smith). One facet someone could say against this is that when the term was originally used, it typically meant an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work, determination, and initiative. In response, a few questions come to mind. The first, how is success measured? The second being, success in which area of one’s life?
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Many people come to America with next to nothing and are able to live a fairly comfortable life. A handful achieve great success. A few are Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Sergey Brin, founder of Google, and Pierre Omidyar, founder of Ebay. Someone with an opposing viewpoint could say that it is only a handful that achieve such successes. What about the ones that come and are unemployed, homeless, or are unable to work? While these are valid concerns, those that concur with the view of the American dream being attainable by all say this. While their circumstances are not the best, these people still have the opportunity to achieve their concept of the American dream, and what they do with the opportunity is entirely up to