What Exactly is The American Dream Today?

Everyone has their own opinion about The American Dream. And, those opinions are as individual and unique as America itself.

In general, the American Dream is our collective belief that anyone can be successful in the United States. And, that upward mobility is not dependent anything other than our ability to work hard.

But, a recent survey by the Success Index presents some fascinating insights. See, when we think about our own definition of the American Dream, 56% of us think it’s based on our ability to achieve success on “the things that matter most to us”. That’s fair.

So, just to clear things up, here’s how our fellow Americans really view the Dream.

Work

Doing work that has a positive impact on other people is our number one measure of success in life.

That finding is constant across all gender, age, income, and political affiliations. It can include any kind of work, as long as you can see how it positively impacts others.

Character

By a wide margin, Americans overwhelmingly value character as a key measure of success. They recognize that the kind of person they are matters.

Unlike the Gordon Gekko greed of the 1980’s, people now want to be, well, good people. It matters more than titles, money or social standing. That’s good news.

Money

Most people don’t think being rich is the key to anything, although I’d like to give it a try.

Sure, it would be nice to have a Private Jet and a garage full of collectible cars, but it’s not a priority for most people. We place more value on financial independence, security and peace of mind.

Education

There is a collective illusion about the prioritization of four-year college degrees. For the first time, Americans don’t see traditional higher education as a marker of success. Yes, we now look at colleges and universities with a degree of disdain. Guilty for charging people astronomically high tuition for degrees that are sometimes worthless. Education has become more of a means to an end rather than the measure of success. We all just want good jobs and often see that four year degree as our golden ticket.

When we think about our own vision of the American Dream, we rank a four-year college degree as the 54th most important attribute (out of 61). Even advanced degrees (MD, JD, MBA, etc.) have lost their value. Those watermarks of personal achievement also rank near the bottom of the list at 52nd.

Meanwhile, having a professional certification in a skilled trade (electrician, plumber, mechanic) ranks #15. Yes, we now view the skilled trades as a bigger marker of success than a being a Doctor or Lawyer.

Marriage

In the past, one of the key measures of success was marriage. Not so today. I wrote about marriage in a piece called Is Marriage Dead? (Hint: no)

Marriage (or significant other) is still viewed as important (#19), overall, but the measure varies widely by race. Hispanic, Asian and Black people rank marriage is #46, #47 and #48 respectively.

We simply don’t view marriage as an integral part of a successful life. In contrast, Americans weigh having children as the 4th most important attribute of the successful life. So, having a child as a single parent is now viewed as a more important measure of success than marriage.

Other People - Perception vs. Reality

The ironic thing about the American Dream is how terribly wrong we are about it. We tend to get it right for ourselves. But, we are way wrong about how other’s view success.

When we think about other people, 63% of us incorrectly assume that their vision of the American Dream only involves “financial prosperity through hard work”. Meaning that their vision is purely based on making lots of money. But, that’s not correct. The simple truth is that only 37% of other people define success that way.

In fact, out of 61 different markers of success tested, more than half (52%) had a disparity of 20 points between our assumption and reality. Meaning that we totally misunderstand what our fellow Americans prioritize as measures of success.

That misunderstanding is so widespread that there isn’t a single demographic group in the country that has an accurate view of how most other Americans define a successful life and the American Dream.

Here’s a fun graphic showing how wrong we are about other people. The top ten six things that we perceive as valuable to other people (being rich, owning luxury items, being famous) actually fall in the bottom third of the real value scale. We perceive that other people want to be rich (#1), but in reality they rank being rich as the 45th most important measure of success.

For example, we assume that other people see “owning a lot of luxury items” as the #2 most important aspect of success. In reality, people rank that dead last (#61). We think other people view “being famous as the #3 most important aspect. But, other people rank being famous 59th out of 61 choices.

Other People - Reality vs. Perception

So how do people really rank the top six most important measures of success? Well, the answers are much more mundane than you might think.

The chart below shows the top six answers. For example, the number one stated success criteria is doing work that has a positive impact on other people. But, we think they would list that as the 32nd most important criteria.

See, most people really just want to live a good life. They don’t care that much about getting rich or being famous. They’re much more interested in doing good work, saving for retirement, being a parent and being debt-free someday.

This got me thinking. What if this isn’t the only thing we get wrong about our fellow Americans? What if, in fact, we don’t know each other at all? I wrote about that in my last piece called The Death of Solidarity.

What if, in fact, our values are more closely aligned than we thought? What if we all want the same things? Is that even possible?

While we disagree on many things in this country, we appear to be aligned on what it means to be successful. About what it means to live the American Dream. The things that matter most to us aren’t financial.

The things that matter are doing work that has positive impact on other people, enjoying the work that we do, being enjoyable to be around, having a purpose in life, and being actively involved in our community.

Which means the American Dream is available to everyone, regardless of your financial situation, education, political affiliation or where you live. That’s the American Dream today.

How close are you to living the American Dream? Is there something else you think I should’ve mentioned? I’d like to hear from you as long as you want to have a constructive conversation.

Please click the button below to start a conversation with me. I read and respond to ALL constructive comments. 

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