Is American Dream Still Alive?

In discussion of American dreams, one controversial issue is that Cal Thomas, the panelist on Fox News, claims that it is the dysfunctional government and unstrained liberalism that cause the end of American dreams, but the principle of American culture and the awareness of what got us here will help us to get back on the right track. On the other hand, Brandon King, a student of university of Cincinnati, argues that the American dreams are still alive. What is more, it is the inequality that ruin the American dreams.

As long as people have the faith that the life will be better off than today and enact policy to sustain economic growth, the American dreams will keep alive. I totally agree with King’s view and I believe that government do play a important role in regulating economy and they should enact some policy of educational expenditure and therefore, they can provide with recourse to those who need it. Both king and Thomas discuses the definition of American dreams. Thomas defines American dreams as achieving greater prosperity and consuming more material goods.

What is more, King extends Thomas’s idea and claims that the old American dream is just as what Thomas says, but the new American dream is trimmed down version of its former self. He believes that most people prefer a stable, middle-class lifestyle now, and they change their spending habit from consuming money to get joy to focusing on saving money for the future and having secure employment by showing some statistics about ownership decreasing from 69% in 2005 to 66. 5% in 2010 and renter household increasing 1. 1million.

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And they both agree that culture plays an important role in shaping American dream. Thomas blames dysfunctional government and unstrained liberalism for leading Americans down a path to economic and cultural insolvency while Kings complicates his idea by arguing that government action is still helpful too. Thomas blames government for their action of over-expanding, encroaching, over-taxing, overspending, and over-regulating that erode some nature virtue of people such as self-reliance, individual initiative and personal accountability.

However, king disagrees with him and says that government do help to bring economy back to a stable path such as funding for Wall Street and struggling businesses because of a principle that large business and financial institution enable many others to attain economic stability and security. By helping those big companies, government can increase job opportunities and hire more people, which was what President Obama did in 2010 to get economy out of depression. In the further discussion, King demonstrates that the biggest obstacle of economy recovery is inequality.

And he points out that it is useless for government to redistribute income by taxing rich people and give insurance to pool people, which will only cause the total expenditure of nation decrease and lead to further recession. I totally agree with King’s view that the American dream is still alive, and the key to keep the American dream alive and make economy prosperities is the right of education, because American people needs educational opportunity to compete in the global economy and put gainful employment in it. However, too high taxes and burdensome regulations on people are the knottiness that block people from education.

A son of my mother’s friend was doing excellent job in high school and he decided to go to medical school to continue his study. One day he got a letter from administration office said that he was enrolled in johns Hopkins university. He was super excited and yearned for the college life in the future. However, the high tuition fee $39000 a year broke his heart. His family could not afford such a tuition fee at that time. So he ends up in university of Berkeley, which is a good choice for us but not for him. Our family all feel sorry for him because we believe that he deserve the top school to start his college life.

From my perspective, I suggest that the government really need some policy on regulating educational expenditure that enable every person to get his or her education if he or she deserves it. In conclusion, both Thomas and King believe that the American dream is still alive. However, Thomas blames dysfunctional government for economic recession while King says it is the inequality that cause problem. I agree with King’s view and I suggest government to cut some tuition fee and enact some policy on educational expenditure to give enough educational resource to these people who deserve it, because education is the key to economic prosperity.

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