The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the belief that America offers the opportunity to everyone of a good and successful life achieved through hard work.”
For most Americans, that definition is obvious. American ideals put into practice on American soil allow for an individual’s perseverance to translate into great success. Still, for a vast portion of my generation, Gen Z, that definition is foreign.
According to a new report from American University’s Sine Institute of Policy & Politics, Young Americans’ conceptions of the American Dream have drastically changed, with the idea of success morphing into one of comfort with self. Additionally, the focus on forming a family and buying some property have taken the back seat.
The survey of 1,568 adults between 18 and 34 found that young Americans’ frustrations with politics has affected how they view the term. According to the survey, more than 80 percent of respondents see attaining happiness, having freedom of choice, and maintaining meaningful relationships as core components of the American Dream. While these are not bad, the caveat is in what young Americans concretely prioritize.
While financial success ranks highly with 81 percent considering it “absolutely essential,” the survey found that having a “respected career” is not a priority for 38 percent of respondents and owning a home isn’t one either for 27 percent.
Strangely, but not unexpectedly, for close to 60 percent of respondents, “feelings of patriotism were not intrinsic in their definitions — even when said dream is literally anteceded by the word American.
The survey also found that for 49 percent of respondents, marriage is not a significant aspect of their Dream. Additionally, for 44 percent of respondents, the same is said of raising children. This is particularly concerning considering that according to the National Center for Health Statistics, there has been a sharp decline in fertility rates in recent years, with an increasing number of women giving birth at age 35 or older. It also indicates a massive disparity in priorities among generations.
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s 2018 Survey on Community and Society, for instance, family life and freedom to live one's life were the highest valued components of the American Dream, with 83 percent and 85 percent respectively citing them as priorities. In contrast, in the same study, only 16 percent said that becoming wealthy was essential.
In other words, if we place family life and having children in the same category, there is a 39 percent deficit in the most recent survey. If we place becoming wealthy and attaining financial success in the same category too, there is a 65 percent surplus. Hence, one could say that data suggests that younger Americans are 39 percent less interested than Americans writ large in family life and 65 percent more interested in making money via-à-vis their American Dreams.
Although there are valid arguments for why Gen Z’s views may change over time, the noticeable difference in how half of my generation views the American Dream when compared with those who came before us should not be taken lightly.
The fact that many in my age group have forfeited family life from their versions of the American Dream reflects the ills of our time.
We have observed the rise of what Georgetown University Professor Joshua Mitchell labels the ‘selfie man’ in "American Awakening." This is a man who in escaping the world’s demand for competence views it instead as a mirror. A man that submits himself to causes that begin and end with self. A lost man who finds not only pleasure but vacuous purpose in what feels but is not good in an almost sadistic manner — replacing the theological with the political, the family with career, the communal with self.
In the 1970s, authors like Tom Wolfe and Christopher Lasch wrote prolifically about the perilous rise of narcissism among younger Americans, dubbing the term the ‘Me Decade.’ Fifty years later, their arguments sound more persuasive than ever before.
In "Culture of Narcissism," for instance, Lasch diagnosed the nation with a burgeoning, perpetual expansion of poisonous self-adulation into every corner of the American Way of Life. What has happened to the way the American Dream has been generationally modified should be looked at as a pronounced symptom of Lasch’s diagnosis.
Juan P. Villasmil is an Intercollegiate Studies Institute journalism fellow at The Spectator World. He is also a Young Voices contributor.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member