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| Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/AFP/Getty Images |
Fewer believe that anyone who works hard can get ahead
The American dream—the proposition that anyone who works hard can get ahead, regardless of their background—has slipped out of reach in the minds of many Americans.
Only 36% of voters in a new Wall Street Journal/NORC survey said the American dream still holds true, substantially fewer than the 53% who said so in 2012 and 48% in 2016 in similar surveys of adults by another pollster. When a Wall Street Journal poll last year asked whether people who work hard were likely to get ahead in this country, some 68% said yes—nearly twice the share as in the new poll.
The survey offers the latest evidence that Americans across the political spectrum are feeling economically fragile and uncertain that the ladder to higher living standards remains sturdy, even amid many signs of economic and social progress.
Half of voters in the new poll said that life in America is worse than it was 50 years ago, compared with 30% who said it had gotten better. Asked if they believed that the economic and political system are “stacked against people like me,” half agreed with the statement, while 39% disagreed.
The American dream seemed most remote to young adults and women in the survey. Some 46% of men but only 28% of women said the ideal of advancement for hard work still holds true, as did 48% of voters age 65 or older but only about 28% of those under age 50.
People in both political parties reported a sense of precariousness and disaffection.
Oakley Graham, a stay-at-home father in Greenwood, Mo., outside Kansas City, said that by some measures he was living the American dream. And yet, he feels insecure.
“We have a nice house in the suburbs, and we have a two-car garage,” said Graham, who is 30 years old and whose wife is an electrical engineer. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that money was tight.” For him and most of his neighbors, “no matter how good it looks on the outside, I feel we are all a couple of paychecks away from being on the street.”
Graham, who leans Democratic in his politics and voted for President Biden, said life is “objectively worse” than 50 years ago, in part because labor unions are no longer as strong and capable of helping as many workers. He said his grandfather, a maintenance crew worker for railroads, retired on a union pension, something that most people don’t have now. --->READ MORE HERE
Just a little more than a third of US voters believe the American dream, which holds that those who work hard can get ahead regardless of background, is still possible, according to a new poll.
A Wall Street Journal/NORC survey from October found 36% of voters said the American dream “still holds true,” 45% said it was “once true but not now,” and 18% said it “never held true.”
Half of American voters also believe life is worse in the US than it was a half century ago, while 30% disagreed and said it had improved over that time period, the poll shows.
Similarly, half of respondents agreed with the statement that America’s economic and political system is “stacked against people like me,” compared with 39% who disagreed with that statement.
The sentiment cuts across partisan lines, with both Democrats and Republicans mentioning life being “objectively worse” and the American dream being “past tense,” according to voters who spoke with the Journal.
“We have a nice house in the suburbs, and we have a two-car garage,” Oakley Graham, a 30-year-old, stay-at-home father from Greenwood, Mo., who voted for President Biden, told the outlet. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that money was tight.”
“[N]o matter how good it looks on the outside, I feel we are all a couple of paychecks away from being on the street,” he added, blaming in part the decline of strong US labor unions.
Meanwhile, John Lasher, a 78-year-old retired electrical inspector for aircraft carriers and submarines and supporter of former President Donald Trump from nearby Springfield, Mo., blamed Biden and his administration for rising inflation when speaking with the Journal. --->READ MORE HERE
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