Erstellt am: 13. 5. 2011 - 17:55 Uhr

The death of the American Dream

… or is it just taking a time-out?

The idea of the American Dream is often traced back to the United States Declaration of Independence, the part that talks about “certain inalienable Rights" including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." However, in 1931, the writer and historian, James Truslow Adams, gave the now legendary phrase a rather more commercial and materialistic spin:
“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”.

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However, he failed to explain the standard: better and richer and fuller … than what? The way the phrase was absorbed into the American culture was with the notion that each generation should be better off than the last, with ever-increasing income, comfort and quality of life. Now, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that, sooner or later, that has to come to an end; nothing can go on improving forever. Now Americans are working harder than ever before, and not even maintaining their standard of living, let alone improving it.

This Saturday’s Reality Check Special looks at the fate of the American Dream with Economic historian Richard Wolff. He says the waking up from the dream is causing a huge shake up of American ideas and ideals.

He says that it wasn’t only wages that started to stagnate in the 1970s – it was also the beginning of the end for the traditional American family. The 1970s were the prime time of women’s liberation; women wanted to go out to work and have their own careers – but this wasn’t only a wish, it was also a necessity in the effort to keep the upward spiral of ever improving quality of life going.

Today, Americans are starting to look around at the crumbling ruins of the “dream” and wondering whether it wasn’t more of a nightmare. When they look across “the pond” to Europe, they see a culture that many wish they had for themselves.

Richard Wolff was the guest in Reality Check: the death of the American Dream. Here is is the full interview: