**Resolved: **The “American Dream” is entirely economic/financial in nature.
Debate.
No. Dusty Rhodes is The American Dream.
Nah, it’s also sociological too, when you factor in finding the right person to have those 2.4 perfect children with to fill your house that’s surounded by a white picket fence.
It also includes having a fulfilling job, or at least one you don’t hate.
I’d agree, but let me add the following constraint to the discussion: Differentiate between what you see as the most common perception of the term, and what you’d personally like it to represent.
The American Dream: Whatever it is your parents say you are supposed to want out of life.
I disagree.
The American Dream: College Education, Own a Home, Retire Comfortably; you may now pick only one item.
Entirely economic/financial? No, definitely not. Most often that’s a component, but, say, a wealthy family in some Stalinist dictatorship that escapes to the US and is able to live without fear might be said to have achieved the American dream, even if their economic status is reduced.
So refugees living in Canada are also living the American dream?
Terminal clause aside,* is that your definition or your perception of TAD?
*…and wrong, but that’s another topic…
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Much of the American Dream is economic and financial in nature. It’s based on a belief that if you are smart and hardworking, you should be able to afford to raise a family in a safe neighborhood in a reasonably comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
Not my intention. I want some intelligent feedback and discussion about exactly what people - or Dopers, close - think TAD is. It’s used in the same vague and (intentionally or unintentionally) misleading way as many other popular economics terms and I want to know if anyone sees, personally or as a general definition, any component except financial and economic “success” and stability.
Extremely conventional statement of the definition. (Not a bad thing.) But if it’s only “much” this, what else is it?
I suppose the specifics are different for everyone.
I wouldn’t say so. They may be achieving the same thing, but it seems tautological (?) that to live the American dream you’re doing it in the US. It’s just a matter of terminology; which is not to say that immigrants can’t “make good” in many other countries as well.
I never hear about “the Nigerian dream” or “the Irish dream”. Maybe every country has a dream, and being an American, I’ve never been exposed to this. But it doesn’t seem likely.
Seems to me that “the American dream” is much more than simply being free from oppression.
I always understood “the American Dream” as a concept arose from an encouraging political statement. Roosevelt? Lincoln?
All human beings have dreams of the best life they can imagine, often quite modest. A safe life, the respect of others, useful work, material comforts. There is nothing unique about a dream simply because you have the good fortune to be born in the United States.