U.S. residents ‘losing faith’ in American Dream, new poll shows
White Americans are by far more pessimistic about the country’s future than racial minorities, according to a new poll released Monday that studied attitudes about “the American Dream.”
The study of 1,022 American adults by Xavier University found broad agreement that the American Dream – which respondents defined themselves – is harder to achieve now than it has been in the past, and will be even harder for the next generation.
The data shows that “people are losing faith” in the idea that they can achieve whatever they set their mind to, said a release put out by Xavier’s Institute for Politics and the American Dream.
But outlooks were most grim among white respondents – only 29 percent of whites surveyed said the American Dream was in good condition, compared with 48 percent who said it is in bad condition.
Among black Americans, 39 percent were optimistic about achieving the American Dream, with 35 percent pessimistic. Latinos were optimistic by a 37 percent to 36 percent margin, and non-white’s were positive by 36 percent to 35 percent.
Immigrants to the U.S. also were found to be far more positive about the American Dream (47 percent optimistic to 30 percent pessimistic) than U.S.-born citizens (31 percent to 46 percent).
Respondents chose from several options in defining what they believe the American Dream to be. The top choices were opportunity, freedom, family, financial security, happiness, a good job, home ownership and wealth.
An overwhelming majority, 74 percent, said achieving the American Dream is based on hard work, while 11 percent said it is due to luck or circumstances.
Despite their pessimism, 67 percent of those surveyed said they are still confident they can achieve the American Dream in their lifetime, compared to 32 percent who said they are not confident.
Only 23 percent said it will be easier for the next generation to achieve the American Dream, while 68 percent said it will harder.
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Maybe we can whine ourselves back to the 1950s, when times were simpler.
Reagan’s/Bush’s trickle-down economy should start working any minute now. Keep holding your breath
White Americans loosing faith eh, gee I wonder if the black magic being used on this country has anything to do with it!
The new American Dream is to run these daisy totting liberals out of washing ton…We have a dream where ALL men are created equal except for the liberal left that needs to be caged and sent to China.
Precisely. My personal version of the dream is to live the remainder of my life, starting after November 2010, with the Progressives completely disempowered and utterly discredited. And a generation behind that remembers the chaos the wrought upon the nation.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
[For a light hearted take our present peril]
Isn’t that the plan? Doesn’t that what the Democrats want? Isn’t that what they are pushing for with the healthcare bill? It’s pretty obvious with unemployment over 10%, the constant drum beat of negativity, the uncertainity of tomorrow, and the constant bad news about the future; inflation, deficeits, the lack of leadership, the constant barrage against the Constitution, people are fed up and really pissed off. The Democrats should be ashamed of what they have done and how they have mismanaged the last year starting with the TARP and stimulus bills. It’s clear to me that they can’t be trusted with managing the government, our security, the military or any other major sector of our society.
When your government fails to protect your soveriegnty by doing nothing to keep the flow of illegals from coming across, when “some animals are more equal than others”, when the crooks on wall street run the economy into the dirt, when the fools in DC pretend to be concerned and then keep on doing whatever the hell they want, is this article even the least bit shocking?
NOT REALLY