May 31st, 2018
Written by - Dorothy Bogen '20
We like to think our revolution changed the game, shifted the players and wrote new rules. We like to think that we are the exceptional nation, a beacon of equality and freedom. A place where a Dream can be realized. We like to believe aristocracies are relics of the past, vanquished by the revolution. A place where people don’t inherit their power, they earn it. We like to hope anyone can succeed in this country. A place where your class, race, gender, religion or sexuality has no bearing on how far you’ll go in life.
While there are kernels of truth in these perceptions, as Americans we must recognize that this country is still an aristocracy, even if we no longer have nobles, which in turn means we have failed to live up to our own standards.
While the American Revolution was certainly about securing colonial autonomy and banishing the monarchy, it was also about eliminating aristocracy and concentrated power that could lead to tyranny. This goal can clearly be seen through Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as it argued against hereditary power and the “aristocratic tyranny in the [people in power],” that monarchy inevitably leads to. Now this aristocracy was technically refuted by Sections 9 and 10 of the Constitution, which banned the granting of Titles of Nobility by the federal government. But, hereditary power still exists in this country, just in more conspicuous forms.
The great promise of the American Dream is that if you work hard, you will have more economic success than your parents. The supposed ease of social mobility is a cornerstone of American mythology. Titans of industry who came from nothing are our modern-day heroes and role models. Yet, this central tenet to our identity seems to be more like a work of fiction than reality. While this country has certainly witnessed eras of great mobility, recently, socioeconomic mobility has been on the decline and with it comes the rise of hereditary power. According to Stanford economist Raj Chetty, “social mobility is low and has been for at least thirty or forty years.” Now this is probably because several studies have found that people today are less likely to make more than their parents. According to the Financial Times in 2016, only half of thirty year old Americans were making more than their parents at the same age. This is compared to the fact that 90% of thirty year olds in the 1970s were making more than their parents. As social mobility stagnates, the family you were born into becomes an increasingly decisive factor in your economic well-being. An article from 538 supports this as it states “in the US [your upbringing] plays a major role in determining where you’ll end up later in life.” The data in the article goes on to show that while both those who are born into poverty and affluence often do move toward the middle as adults, both groups still stay in the same third of earners. Furthermore, this impact can be exacerbated by race as blacks are more likely than whites to remain in the bottom and middle percentiles of income, as according to the Brookings Institute. But what does all this data mean for the Dream?
Well, I hate to be morbid, but the Dream is currently dead, or at least stuck in a coma. America can no longer promise to be the land of bountiful economic opportunity. When we cheer on the great American heroes who rose from the bottom, we are cheering for the exceptions, not the rules. While what family you’re born into does not explicitly guarantee or prevent success as it did in the 18th century, it is clear that is an immense factor. This means that people are still able to “inherit” power, wealth, and status, the exact aristocratic system we waged a revolution to reject. This inherently unequal aristocracy can not coexist with our Dream as it fundamentally undermines all the Dream proposes.
So how do we bring the great American Dream back to life? I am not an economist so I admit, I do not know how to restructure our economy to increase social mobility and reduce economic inequality. But I do know two things. First, our solution must change the rules, not create exceptions. Too often progress has been stifled in this country because our revolutions have made only limited steps. Take the American Revolution. The rule of the day was that unless you were rich, a noble, or a king, you did not deserve rights and representation. Instead of changing this rule to ensure equality for all, the revolution only resulted in white men with property being added to the list of exceptions. This has led to long struggles from all people who don’t fit that criteria, struggles that continues today as the rule has never been changed but the list of exceptions has just gotten longer. Thus, when we approach these issues we must make sure our fix fundamentally changes the system to ensure all people have equal access to the promise of the American Dream. Secondly, we must recognize that there is a problem. As Americans, we are hesitant to recognize our country’s own faults and shortcomings lest we come across as unpatriotic or disloyal to our ideals. But if patriotism is defined as love for one’s country, then the act of recognizing a problem in one’s nation and working to fix it is perhaps the greatest act of this love. If we truly love this country and all that it stands for, then we must ensure our ideals are a reality. If we really love this Dream, then we have to ensure it can be realized. We can not do this if our head is buried in the sand or if we shut down when flaws are pointed out. Do not think of criticism as an act of hate. Rather, see it for what it is; a genuine desire born from love to make this country better. The American Dream can only be resurrected into reality if we keep these ideas in mind as we formulate solutions to the issues squashing our Dream. Otherwise, the Dream will remain what it is, a dream.
Sources:
Henretta APUSH textbook (aka the sacred text)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/rich-kids-stay-rich-poor-kids-stay-poor/
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2013/08/28/the-other-american-dream-social-mobility-race-and-opportunity/
https://www.ft.com/content/7de9165e-c3d2-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856354
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/03/the-mobility-myth-Raj Chetty quote from here
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