Trying to Kill the American Dream
Some progressives argue that the American Dream is no longer attainable. Many Ivy League-educated black intellectuals have told people in urban communities that the odds are permanently stacked against them—that America is fundamentally racist and success is out of reach. At the same time, white progressives deliver a similar message to white Americans, portraying the economic system as irreparably unfair.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has argued that “you can’t earn a billion dollars,” suggesting that such wealth can only be accumulated by exploiting others. In effect, her argument implies that achieving extraordinary financial success requires unethical behavior. Bernie Sanders has likewise argued that the American Dream has “turned into a nightmare” because billionaires have rigged the system to avoid accountability. Critics have noted the irony that Sanders himself has become a millionaire.
Ocasio-Cortez argues that the “right wing’s entire political agenda …[involves] a politics that involves lying to and screwing over working and middle-class Americans so that they can steal from our healthcare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and bailouts for their crypto billionaire friends.” Her crypto billionaires excluded of course.
Whether one agrees with her assessment or not, these messages contribute to a broader narrative that the economic system is fundamentally stacked against ordinary Americans.
Public opinion reflects this growing skepticism. Recent polling has found that fewer than half of Americans believe everyone has an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. It is not surprising that many younger Americans have become more receptive to socialism, even if they have only a limited understanding of what it entails.
The danger is that repeatedly telling people success is unattainable discourages initiative and entrepreneurship. Those willing to take risks and build businesses become fewer in number. Rather than encouraging perseverance, these messages can provide an excuse for inaction.
When challenged, Ocasio-Cortez has defended her rhetoric, arguing that critics attack her personally rather than addressing the substance of her arguments. She contends that working people deserve an honest discussion about concentrations of economic power. She says:
Some people get enraged that I draw attention to this. That’s on them. Let them call me shrill, dumb, inexperienced, girly, uneducated – these folks will say anything to distract from or undercut the truth that working people are getting screwed, and giving people a fair shake means we must have a grown conversation about reigning in abuse of power.
Most Americans never expect to become billionaires. But if someone does aspire to extraordinary success, what actually stands in the way? Success is not built on theft or exploitation. More often it comes from innovation, creativity, perseverance, and calculated risk-taking.
Companies such as Amazon, FedEx, Tesla, and Pilot have created products and services that millions of people voluntarily use and those products improve their lives. Their founders became wealthy by creating value that customers willingly embraced.
At its core, the American Dream is the belief that every individual has the freedom and opportunity to improve his or her circumstances through hard work, talent, and determination. That ideal has inspired generations of Americans and millions of immigrants seeking a better future.
If belief in the American Dream were truly disappearing, one might expect innovation to decline as well. Yet the number of U.S. patents has continued to grow over time, suggesting that entrepreneurial activity remains strong despite the pessimism from the left.
America certainly faces serious challenges, including shortcomings in education and increasing international competition for scientific talent. Yet despite these obstacles, countless individuals continue to achieve remarkable success. They have not accepted the argument that opportunity no longer exists.
I once said that there were three types of people: the 3 percent who make things happen; the 7 percent that knows what’s happening and the. 90 percent who haven’t a clue what’s happening. Political messages that emphasize helplessness appeal most strongly to those seeking explanations for personal disappointments and failures rather than opportunities to improve their circumstances.
My criticism of Ocasio-Cortez is a living contradiction of her own words. She, herself is evidence of the opportunities available in America while simultaneously arguing that those opportunities are largely unavailable to others – especially people of color, like her. Whether one agrees with her politics or not, her own career demonstrates that remarkable advancement remains possible. AOC is the embodiment of the American dream but she tries convince others that unlike her, they cannot succeed. Her mother was a house cleaner and a school bus driver. After college AOC was a bartender and a waitress. Now she is a member of congress being paid $174,000 a year.
On a personal note, I find these arguments insulting because of my family’s history. All my great grandparents were slaves. My great-grandmother told me that she was “picking cotton on Bonner’s Hill when Sherman rode up.” Leaving the plantation with little more than the clothes on her back, she pursued a better life. Her children did the same, as did subsequent generations of our family.
For me, that powerful history embodies the American Dream. I have often remarked that only in America could descendants of enslaved people become the professors teaching the descendants of former slaveholders that the American Dream is dead. My family’s history and millions like it reinforce my belief that opportunity, while never guaranteed, remains one of America’s defining characteristics.
So pardon me AOC, but you are full of it.
haroldblackphd.com 
Yes, the politics of envy live strong in her. Envy is an incredibly damaging emotion and is the breeding ground for every form of evil. Ask Cain.
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My Dad used to say that envy was a wasted emotion and for us to make others envious of us.
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But of course, AOCs problem is that she isn’t full of anything – aside from antipathy for the “haves,” who obviously are stealing from the “have nots” in her world.
We should wonder less about why China has to steal so constantly from our IP to make advances; they lack vision, ingenuity, or innovation – or at least those things are misguided by a lack of virtue, or incentive. Fear can only carry one so far on the innovation scale….inspiration allows them to carry themselves – and becomes the impetus for national greatness in the collective.
Envy’s green hue is a terrible but powerful motivator. It burns in the psyche and creates a monster that wants to take and steal rather than create and earn. In AOCs world, Elon’s concepts for Tesla, Starlink or SpaceX were found in a cave in a magical glowing treasure chest, and Elon showed up on his unicorn and stole it from the good Wizard who was safeguarding it for all of the 90%.
My greater fear is that the power of behavioral economics kicks in as AOC and her socialists friends’ arguments gain more airtime and headspace. Capital flows to its point of least resistance, and some other country – inspired by discovering glimpses while visiting the US for the World Cup – is going to figure out how to create irresistible environments for that capital to flow their way. And we become a lesser version of a dying Europe.
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But of course, AOCs problem is that she isn’t full of anything – aside from antipathy for the “haves,” who obviously are stealing from the “have nots” in her world.
We should wonder less about why China has to steal so constantly from our IP to make advances; they lack vision, ingenuity, or innovation – or at least those things are misguided by a lack of virtue, or incentive. Fear can only carry one so far on the innovation scale….inspiration allows them to carry themselves – and becomes the impetus for national greatness in the collective.
Envy’s green hue is a terrible but powerful motivator. It burns in the psyche and creates a monster that wants to take and steal rather than create and earn. In AOCs world, Elon’s concepts for Tesla, Starlink or SpaceX were found in a cave in a magical glowing treasure chest, and Elon showed up on his unicorn and stole it from the good Wizard who was safeguarding it for all of the 90%.
My greater fear is that the power of behavioral economics kicks in as AOC and her socialists friends’ arguments gain more airtime and headspace. Capital flows to its point of least resistance, and some other country – inspired by discovering glimpses while visiting the US for the World Cup – is going to figure out how to create irresistible environments for that capital to flow their way. And we become a lesser version of a dying Europe.
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The last sentence is truly scary. Are we that stupid?
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Institutionally, the Christian church in America may be a leading indicator. We may be walking a similar path to Europe with dying denominations – but at least there are growing segments that didn’t exist a decade ago that are non-denominational.
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The most hilarious part of AOC’s ignorance. Every regulation she wants passed only inhibits the American dream further…..protecting the entrenched…..
If she ever gets on a national debate stage, the entire debate should be about economics. Let her show the world to where these socialist success stories exist.
If she is so concerned the American dream is dying, what are her ideas to help make it healthier? Taxing the rich? No regulation reduction? No anti trust actions?
Instead of trying to make the American dream more possible. She puts forth efforts to kill it off with Socialist policies……….
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100 percent. She wants to convince us that the American dream is dead in other to empower the socialists.
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It takes exceptional people with exceptional abilities to create exceptional things. People with small minds can never seem to grasp this concept. AOC is the later.
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
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Defining the American Dream is America’s work. And there are so many people to define it..
..JD Vance has started the rounds
( campaigning?) defending the dignity of work..and maybe something will come of that..
I’ve seen Americans getting into college, making the workforce, getting the home, getting the kids, paying bills, blue or white collar- but then be laid off for reason ….or no reason..
Responses to the essay have some aspect of good and bad. And there is the American Dream, where the people submit to God’s chosen leaders..defined as the rich, whom we serve as God’s American representatives..
A 92 yo man asked me to take him to see his deceased girlfriend’s mother. This is going to be profound, I think.
I ask the woman answering the door if she REALLY knew this guy: ‘ yes , he dated my daughter’.
It’s then I see the good marquee in her house. She buys foods & drinks with S.S. and then sells it @ profit in a food desert.
Probably illegal. But the people win . And she doubled her S.S.
She’s not rich but figured out a system .
And doing so, is the American Dream.
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Our country was founded on the principle that the government serve the people not the other way round. So we do not submit to “God’s chosen leaders.” That would be what the King of England would say.Instead our Declaration says “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”
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I won’t tell you the result of talking with E TN religious, and saying what others believe- that God loves certain people- and you’ll know it by their money; talk about thisr who believe if we just follow “the leaders “, we’ll also be “The Blessed “..
I Don’t think that is capitalism.
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Good grief
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