45% of Americans Say "American Dream Is a Thing of the Past... Don't Believe It"

WSJ and University of Chicago Joint Survey Results Released
Increase in Responses Saying "American Dream Is Not Valid"

Distrust among Americans toward American society has been increasing. Only 36% of Americans believed in the so-called "American Dream," the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this on the 24th (local time) based on a joint survey with the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center (NORC).

WSJ and NORC conducted a survey from the 19th to the 24th of last month targeting 1,163 registered voters in the United States. The most common response, at 45%, was that "the American Dream existed in the past but does not exist now."

Only 36% responded that "the American Dream is still valid today." This represents a 17 percentage point decrease over 11 years from 53% in 2012. Meanwhile, the negative response that "the American Dream has never been true in American society" was in single digits until the mid-2010s but increased to 18% in this survey.

Homeless shelter in San Diego, USA
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Additionally, 50% of respondents agreed with the statement, "The economic and political systems in the U.S. work against people like me." Only 39% disagreed.

In March, WSJ and NORC also surveyed 1,010 Americans asking, "Are you confident that the next generation will have a better life than ours?" Seventy-eight percent of respondents answered negatively. WSJ noted, "This survey started in 1990, and this is the highest rate of negative responses to date."

Jennifer Benz, NORC's Vice President, commented, "It seems social pessimism has spread," adding, "Even if gasoline prices drop slightly or there is minor economic progress, it does not seem to alleviate people's fundamental dissatisfaction."

However, the current survey revealed that perceptions of the overall U.S. economy are improving. When asked to evaluate the U.S. economy, 35% gave positive responses such as "excellent" or "good." Although negative perceptions (65%) still dominate, positive responses were only 20% in the March survey for the same question.