"Even Working Hard, No Home of My Own" Abandonment Surges... The Collapsed 'American Dream'

Belief in the 'American Dream' Drops from 53% to 34%

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 28th (local time) that the number of Americans who believe in the "American Dream"?the idea that hard work can lead to success regardless of race or class?has sharply declined.

WSJ, together with the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center (NORC), released the results of a survey conducted from June 26 to July 8, targeting 1,502 American adults.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

In the survey, only 34% of respondents answered that the "American Dream" of succeeding through hard work is still valid, accounting for just one-third of those surveyed. Twelve years ago, in 2012, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) asked the same question to 2,501 adults, and more than half (53%) responded that the American Dream was still valid. This shows that Americans' expectations for the American Dream have significantly decreased compared to the past.

In this survey, 49% of respondents said the American Dream "was once valid but is no longer valid," and 17% said it "has never been valid."

Americans typically expect the American Dream to include owning a home, raising a family, and enjoying a comfortable retirement, but only a minority believe these are achievable. While 89% of respondents considered homeownership essential or important for their future, only 10% said that owning a home is easy or easily attainable. Similarly, 96% and 95% of respondents said financial stability and a comfortable retirement are important, but only 9% and 8%, respectively, believed these goals are easy to achieve. WSJ noted that these response trends were consistent regardless of gender or political affiliation but were more pronounced among younger generations who have given up on homeownership due to high interest rates and student loan burdens.

Economic experts analyzed that economic mobility in the United States has shrunk over recent decades, making it natural for Americans to have low expectations of their chances for success.

Emerson Sprick, an economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a think tank, said, "Key aspects of the American Dream seem unattainable compared to past generations," citing the continuous decline of private pensions over the past decade, which are now on the verge of disappearing, and the sharp rise in homeownership costs as causes.

Additionally, research by Nathaniel Hendren of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Raj Chetty of Harvard University found that about 90% of people born in 1940 lived better lives than their parents, but this proportion dropped to half among those born in the 1980s. Professor Hendren stated, "Economic mobility likely hit an all-time low in the early 2020s."