<p>Well... I feel like this will lead nowhere but for the heck of it let's debate the American Dream. </p>
<p>I feel like America has started to lose the ultimate "land of opportunity" ideal it once had. Education wise, we are being surpassed by many other countries who simply want it more. By the time we retire Social Security will most likely be extinct. College admissions get even more ridiculously competitive, leading me to question why so many of us work so hard to get into sub-par schools that cannot afford to give us scholarships we deserve.</p>
<p>The American Dream isn’t dead. Life here is still better than most other places on Earth - yes, we are being surpassed in education by countries like India and China, but just think of the hundreds of millions of people living below the line of poverty in those countries. They lack the certain type of social mobility that the United States has, the type of maneuverability in one’s lot that makes it possible for the child of a single mother to become a President or the son of working class immigrants in southern California to become the Secretary of Defense. (I’m referring to Panetta, not Hagel.) </p>
<p>The education system in this country needs a lot of work, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, the philosophies and principles in which this country was built upon have far from completely decayed.</p>
<p>Unless we have a really high poverty level, drought, and are all hungry 24/7, I don’t think so. There are so many countries that have it worse, in so many ways, really. We can complain about things all day long, but the vast majority things here are better than other countries.</p>
<p>Like CE527M said - when you think about it, the poorest of the poor in this country who live in subsidized housing and collect welfare still lead significantly better lives than most people on Earth. Nevermind the American middle class.</p>
<p>It depends on your definition of dream. Somewhere along the line the American dream has become, getting into a T20 university all for a chance at $80-100k until downsize or merger. The real American dream, the dream on which the country was built is alive and kicking. That dream is building a business, that employs people and creates things. Of course with that dream comes years of hard work for little money or recognition. But in return one gets to control his destiny and if fortune smiles, making much so money that he has to hire an army of T20 graduates to count it. the real question should be why do so many prefer dream #1 over dream #2.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m just oblivious, but I feel very lucky to have been born into the situation I was born into. The majority of all the people who ever lived are now dead, and virtually all of them had a more suckish life than I do. </p>
<p>Of course the United States has problems, and the fact that other countries have worse ones doesn’t negate that. But let’s have some perspective! College admissions has nothing to do with anything.</p>
<p>And this discussion always gets way too economics-focused for me to understand, so that’s all I got.</p>
<p>To me, it’s a lack of understanding different perspectives among most people in the country that makes us think things are worse. I travel every now and then with my family to visit my relatives ‘back in the old country’ as the saying goes. It’s not as bad as people say it is, but still I love it here in America. I mean you always gets news thrown at you about military actions of the United States, our low status in OECD education rankings, or mass shootings. And yet millions come here anyway. </p>
<p>It’s also a perspective of time. Millions of people still live extravagantly compared to the time of the Great Depression. You and I are on our laptops, typing and reading away and probably listening to our iPhones and Androids for goodness sake . Definitely there’s a lot of people in poverty, but in many parts of the country you wouldn’t realized it if you looked around, you had to go on the web to find the facts. Think about it, it’s not as bad as most think. But it sure as hell can be a lot better.
~ftf</p>
<p>it’s not DEAD, but other countries are starting to catch up. so maybe it’s not exclusively the “american” dream, at least it won’t be eventually. and i don’t think that’s bad.</p>
<p>i think that american colleges are still considered the best. but the pre college education, overall, stinks. plus, the u.s. tests everybody. other countries tend to only test their highest achieving students.</p>
<p>but then you have higher income students in good schools testing badly like low income students in inner city schools, so there is definitely something wrong here.</p>
<p>(I don’t think believing you deserve scholarships is entirely unjustified. Colleges probably raise their sticker prices just so they can make their “discounts” look better than they are. I guess it used to be that you could work hard and pay for your own university education as a twenty-year-old kid, and older people are always bragging about how they did this, but without some kind of financial aid, need-based or otherwise, I don’t see how that’s possible today.)</p>