By Paul Angel
Recently, the topic of the “American Dream” has popped up in public discussion. People are wondering what the American Dream is these days.
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What is the 21st-century American Dream, exactly? A quick internet search tells me:
“The American Dream” is a phrase referring to a purported national ethos of the United States: that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. The phrase was popularized by James Truslow Adams during the Great Depression in 1931, and has had different meanings over time.
Originally, the emphasis was on democracy, liberty, and equality, but more recently has been on material wealth and upward social mobility.
In his book The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams—the historian mentioned above—explained his definition of the American Dream:
[T]hat dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. … It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
I don’t think too many people will argue that Americans shouldn’t be allowed to achieve “the fullest stature of which they are innately capable,” but Adams is wrong. The American Dream has always been about the freedom to acquire possessions and not some lofty “dream of social order.” In short, the American Dream has eternally revolved around acquiring land, a house and financial security.
In the 1600s, English settlers came to Jamestown, Va. with the hopes of owning land and prospering financially. Owning a piece of property allowed self-sustenance and the chance to improve one’s economic lot. (Before it was all over, the American Dream of the Jamestown settlers was surviving the day without an arrow in the ribs or having to eat shoe-leather stew for supper.)
You could argue that the American Dream of New England’s Puritans was religious freedom, but many were also looking for land and financial security.
In later pioneer days, the American Dream still meant ownership of land and a home, something that, for many early immigrants, was unachievable in the Old Country. But this was a dream they were willing to die for. (In fact, chances were high you could end up losing your scalp should your property be adjacent to hostile Indians—your “American Nightmare.”)
For a slave or an indentured servant, the American Dream was a bit different. For them, the American Dream involved freedom from the physical control of another and, eventually, the chance to own a home and property and pursue financial independence.
For an Okie in the 1930s, the American Dream might be found in the promised land of California, where work was allegedly abundant, a man could feed his family and, maybe, one day, afford to own a piece of property on which a house could be erected.
Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is weighing in on the topic, and he says he knows precisely what the American Dream is and what it is not:
Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream. The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.
I am afraid he may be wrong on both counts. First, for so many, the old formula for achieving the American Dream of home ownership and “prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security”—hard work and thrift—has been hijacked. The dramatic increase in interest rates, health care bills, prices of goods and services, and the astronomical rise in the cost of housing have now made it nearly impossible for average middle-class Americans to save money to buy homes or achieve economic security. The average cost of a home in America is currently $419,200.
According to my “AI assistant”:
The average U.S. house payment (principal and interest), including escrow for taxes and insurance, and potentially HOA fees, can vary significantly based on factors like loan type, interest rate, and location. The average monthly mortgage for a $419,200 home would be $2,538.
Thus, generally speaking, a single person needs to make at least $80,000 a year to afford a $2,000-a-month mortgage, and a whopping $160,000 or more to pay for that $400,000 mortgage.
Considering the median income of the average American is $50,000, the American Dream of home ownership is clearly slipping beyond many’s grasp.
As far as Mr. Bessent’s belief that “access to cheap goods” is not “the essence of the American Dream,” he may be incorrect about that, as well. Today, Americans waste so much money on cheaply made goods, they don’t have room for them all. The purchase of mostly “cheap goods” has become an addiction. We are a nation of hoarders—and, evidently, we like it.
How do I know this? Where I live, when a piece of commercial property sells, it invariably goes to building more commercial storage units.
According to Greg Isaacson, a respected financial trends analyst, rent storage in America is now a $44.3 billion industry. Currently, there are 52,000 storage facilities across America, taking up 2.1 billion square feet of rental space. By the end of this decade, 20% of households will rent a storage unit, spending an average of $85 per month.
Worst of all, perhaps, there were 25,000 auctions carried out in 2024 to sell off the contents of storage units whose renters could not afford the monthly fees and lost their possessions.
Today, it is no longer logical to believe the American Dream is to own a home. That is a pipedream. Conversely, you have achieved the American Dream if you are the proud renter of a storage unit packed with basically worthless stuff made in China—and it only costs $85 a month!
Paul Angel is the Managing Editor of American Free Press.
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