Picture a nicely sized house with a green lawn and a white picket fence. In this house lives a happily married couple with two healthy young children and a dog. This family has no financial worries, and they can easily take care of their basic needs with a good deal of money to spare, and some to save. Their home lies several miles from the city, in a safe suburban town. When the phrase “The American Dream” was coined, it is very possible that this was a realistic goal for immigrants and citizens alike throughout the country to achieve. Today, “The American Dream” has changed to mean something far different from what it once did. Today, it is nothing more than a glossed over lie that more and more people are unrealistically laboring towards as they are trying to meet this hopeless goal. Today, the truth is that “The American Dream” is all but impossible to achieve for most people. So what happened to “The American Dream”?
America is what happened. America has become a completely different nation since James Trunslow Adams first coined the phrase in 1931, and it has continued to change as new generations come and go. However, the changes that America has gone through over the past decades are not solely to blame for the collapse of “The American Dream”. Many things have happened in America that has caused “The American Dream” to perish, but most of it is due to the American people in general. Today, Americans and immigrants to the United States have simply raised their expectations to a ridiculous level. No longer is being happy and healthy good enough. Today, people living in America want and expect the best for themselves. They are disappointed with a simple sedan that gets them safely to and from their job each day. They want the Mercedes or the BMW instead, and it is only acceptable if their flashy and expensive car is taking them to an equally flashy and very well paying job. “The American Dream” today is not to be happy and well taken care of anymore. Instead, it is to have everything that one desires. This changing definition is one of the main reasons that “The American Dream” has faltered.