The American Dream

More than half of Americans think the so-called American Dream is dying.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, 

"life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the US Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The meaning of the "American Dream" has changed over the course of history, and includes both personal components (such as home ownership and upward mobility) and a global vision. 

Historically the Dream originated in the mystique regarding frontier life. As the Royal Governor of Virginia noted in 1774, the Americans "for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled". He added that, "if they attained Paradise, they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west."

The ethos today implies an opportunity for Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work. According to The Dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive a good education and career without artificial barriers. 

It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the prior restrictions that limited people according to their class, caste, religion, race, or ethnicity. Immigrants to the United States sponsored ethnic newspapers in their own language; the editors typically promoted the American Dream.

According to a new poll conducted by ORC International for CNNMoney, 59 percent of the U.S. now believes that the American Dream is impossible for most Americans to achieve. That figure is up from 54 percent in 2006, before the recession.

The poll did not specify how people define the American Dream, but historically many have defined it as the ability to obtain a better lot in life through hard work.

A declining faith in the American Dream has gone hand in hand with the stagnation of wages and in turn, the shrinking of the middle class. In recent years, more than half of all Americans have had to cut back in some form just in order to pay their rent of cover their mortgage payments, according to Marketplace.

Americans are also concerned about what the future hold for the next generation of Americans. Sixty-three percent of respondents said that most children will grow up to be worse off than their parents, according to the CNNMoney poll.

"The pessimism is reflective of the financial realities a lot of families are facing," Erin Currier, director of the Economic Mobility Project at Pew Charitable Trusts, told CNN. "They are treading water, but their income is not translating into solid financial security."