The
American Dream and Materialism
“Make
money, go to college, and move up in the world”. This is what most young people
are told as they grow up in American society. They are told they are supposed
to value working a well-paying college job. What they aren’t told is that
wealth and the grind for it don’t always make someone happy. People are
herded into jobs that pay a lot, but they are told they can be whatever they
want. A person can be an artist or an author only if it makes a living wage. Another choice is to do it on the side when there’s time in between working a
typically busy nine-to-five job and coming home to care for other
responsibilities. “Why would work a low wage job when a better job can give so
much more?” “Why would stay in a comfortable and familiar place when there are
better places?” Are other things that are said give people incentives to do
more with their lives even if they don’t want to. “It’s possible to buy a
bigger house, a better car, and more things with the right job”. All these things
give the American people the idea that their dream should be about making money
and buying products to make themselves happy. Because of this, materialism,
wealth, and class mobility have clouded the American Dream.
The
American Dream is a very subjective thing as all dreams are, but the general
gist of it is that the American Dream is a dream and life goals that a person
plans to accomplish using the opportunities in America. This is the American
Dream at its core; however, most people today seem to think that the American
Dream consists of making money, buying things, and moving up the class ladder.
The reason for this could have to do with America’s capitalistic nature that rewards
those who are viewed as financially well off with an inheritance to give their family
and friends. Stories both fictional and nonfiction of people making it from
being poor to rich are told to people to show what the American Dream is and
that it can be accomplished. Most of these stories are about people who
eventually make a lot of money while very few are about just making it in
America.
To
begin with, college is the place where young adults go to be prepared for the
working world. Temple University is one of those places and the founder of the
college, Russell Cromwell made a famous speech about working in the world. In
his Acres of Diamonds speech, he says, that money is power and that it has
powers. If someone said that they didn’t want money, then they didn’t want to
do anything good for everyone around them and they should spend their life
making money (Cromwell). Cromwell really thinks that making money should be a
main part of everyone’s life and not making money is a waste of time. He even
wrote a short book called Praying for Money, which attempts to answer the
question of praying to God for money. When told about money being the root of
evil, he said that the love of money is the root of evil that is the worship or
love of the means instead of the end. He then goes on to talk about all the
good he could do with money for his family, the city, and Temple itself
(Cromwell). Having a lot of money could indeed do a lot of good for
the people is it given to, but the love of money appears to be what people are
focusing on. They easily forget that life is uncertain, and they can lose their
life when they least expect it and they’ll lose everything they had in the
world in the blink of an eye. Cromwell is right in that we should make money to
help people and ourselves, but we shouldn’t focus on making a lot if we don’t
want to or don’t need to. The whole making as much money as possible kind of
thinking is destructive because no one can have enough money to satisfy their American
Dream’s needs since there is no limit to the needs of a dream.
The
question then comes up on how a person should be using their money to help
achieve the American Dream. Money can be destructive in the wrong hands like
power in the hands of tyrants or fools. The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
gives a couple points about wealth and how it should be spent by those who have
it. Carnegie says that the people who are in positions of power must be
sensible because one of the major obstacles to the improvement of the human
race is charity given without thought. To him, it would be better for everyone
if all the millions “were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the
slothful, the drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so-called charity today, it is probable that $950 is unwisely spent; so spent,
indeed as to produce the very evils which it proposes to mitigate or cure”
(Carnegie, 8). Giving and spending money to the right people and organizations
can either help or hurt a person’s goals and what they dream of. Recently,
Chick-fil-a chose to stop sending money to the Salvation Army because of their
anti-gay ideology and that has cost them customers. On the other hand,
Chick-fil-a sectioned off a portion of customers when they did support the
Salvation Army, so who a person chooses to associate with opens and closes opportunities
in life. From here, it is seen that associations and friendships are more
valuable than money in the American Dream, which is something taught even to
children.
People
are taught at a young age that they can be whatever they want when they grow
up. This is a notion that no one seriously believes as no one cannot literally
become anything they want such as an airplane or a shark, but speaking more
realistically, not everyone can get the job or the role in life that they may
want. Certain conditions in their present life, the world, the government, and
biases may prevent a person from being where they want to be. Take the poor
from Jacob Riis’ book, How the Other Half Lives, shows with pictures and
descriptions people who are unable to achieve certain opportunities. In chapter
five about the Italians in New York, it is said that the Italian immigrant is not
fortunate to be caught up upon with people who pretend to help them, but
instead have their grip on them if they can make them money (Riis). Immigrants
being taken advantage of is common with businessmen and politicians who see
them as a resource to be exploited. A person like this is limited in their
ability to do whatever they want and seeking other methods, like crime, will
lead them to deal with worse people and might worsen their situation. The only
American Dream seemingly possible here is for the immigrant to lay the
foundation for the dreams of future generations. Included in Riis’ book are
pictures of the immigrants he observed. These people lived in terrible
conditions that were shown to hundreds of Americans. This got the attention of President Roosevelt and Riis showed him around New York to show him how the
poor were living. It could be said that Riis was living the American Dream in
his own way because he was helping the poor by getting them the attention they
needed. Even though the problem of poverty in New York wasn’t solved, it did
receive attention and there were and still are efforts to help the poor and
struggling. This humble American Dream was achieved without money, class
mobility, and a well-paying job. Riis was noted as not even making that much
for his efforts and lived humbly.
If
an average person was asked if they dreamed of living in the lower middle class
or just the middle class for the rest of their life, then they might just laugh.
An average person wouldn’t say that someone like Jacob Riis was living the
American Dream even if they were told that he was doing what he wanted to and
didn’t care about the money. They forget that dreams can be more than living
the easy life. The socialists and the capitalists are the same in this regard but want their dreams achieved in different ways. The socialists want the
government to give them their essentials while the capitalists want the
businesses to give them jobs no matter how low-paying they may be. The lyrics
from the song, Snap Your Fingers Snap Your Neck, by Demon Hunter give a good
picture as to what these kinds of people really want. They want what they desire
at the snap of their fingers or a snap of someone’s neck whether it’d be
someone in their way or their own if they wanted to end their life. The song
later goes on to say, “Expectations of my daily bread gives me the hunger to
steal” (Demon Hunter). There is a certain expectation that people have when
people hear of the American Dream. It is almost expected of the country that it
will give us the things we need to achieve our dream and it is true to an
extent. The means do exist for a person to achieve their dreams, but it won’t
be given without some level of hard work, dedication, and soul searching that
some people just don’t want to do unless convinced otherwise.
I
have achieved my American Dream in some regards if I say so myself. Through my
self-published work, I’ve helped and entertained my small and growing audience
of people. A certain story I wrote deals with the American Dream and goals in
life itself. Dreams that Don’t Die is about a nameless protagonist who has been
let go from the job they worked so hard to get through college and now must
live with their dad and work a low wage job. They go through a psychological ride
through their old drawings and stories that have been corrupted by their
neglect. The lessons being taught by this story tell people to use their
God-given talents and abilities even if the world tells you not to. In this
story, the creature of imagination questions the main character by saying, “What
are you afraid of? Do you really only care about the money you make and the
things you can accomplish? Do you lack integrity or a spine?” (36). Don’t worry
about how much money you’ll earn or the number of people you impress. Find
yourself, be yourself, do what you dream of, and you’ll find a happiness that
money and the world can’t compare to.
This
is how the American Dream should be represented by most people. The need for
material goods and class mobility clouds a person’s personal dream and motives.
Material wealth and moving up the class ladder is not possible for everyone nor
is it a dream that’s very fulfilling especially since it’s so shallow and everyone
dies and loses everything they gained in the world. A person can still dream
this regardless if they want to, but they should be the ones to decide it and
not be coerced to do so. Our dreams, talents, personality, and goals are our
own after all and no one can take that away from us.
Sources
Carnegie, Andrew. Gospel
of Wealth
“Snap Your Fingers, Snap
Your Neck.” Demon Hunter, Solid State Records, 2011
Oon, Albert. Dreams
That Don't Die. Self-Published, 2019,
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/960445.
Riis, Jacob A., and Luc
Sante. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of Jacob
A.
Riis.
Penguin, 1997.
“Temple University.” Acres
of Diamonds | Temple University,
https://www.temple.edu/about/history-traditions/acres-diamonds.
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