The American Dream, like the world it inspires, is in a constant state of flux.
Ask 100 people what good means to them, and you’ll probably get a lot of answers. Many may agree, for example, that the American Dream includes achieving financial stability or happiness, but what that looks like is up to each individual.
Some hope that, despite personal and even social challenges, their vision of opportunity for themselves is alive and well. Others, especially members of younger generations, question whether such a dream is really attainable – and if not, how to forge a new road to personal fulfillment.
Ultimately, however, some aspects of the American Dream have endured, with people trying to push past barriers to create their own paths and define the goals of their own success.
In honor of the country’s 250th year, CNBC Make It found prominent voices in politics, finance and age relations to sit down and spark a conversation about what it means to achieve happiness and success in this country today.
Vivian Tu began her career in search of unfathomable wins. “What can I do to be successful in general so that maybe I will hate or hurt someone who didn’t believe in me?” says the Wall Street trader turned media personality behind his financial education product Your Rich BFF. Now, the 32-year-old measures his success so that he can pursue a meaningful career and repay the effort his parents poured into him.
Gail Rudnick, 84, says she’s on her second go at living her big dreams, first raising a close-knit family, and now starting a new career as a content creator and podcast host with her granddaughter, Kim Murstein, 30.
Sylvia Kwan, 62, says her American Dream has been rewriting her life script and pursuing goals she never thought possible, such as becoming the CEO of Ellevest, a women-focused financial planning and wealth management platform.
He also sees significant challenges that keep many people, especially young Americans, from achieving their dreams. Experts say that today’s youngest generations are facing increasing barriers at a rate never faced by previous generations.
Gen Zers, those currently aged 14 to 29, have seen their education and social growth hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic, and those who have graduated from high school or college have entered a changing workforce, experiencing an unaffordable housing market and inflationary pressures.
As the youngest member of our team, 26-year-old historical fiction writer and social media innovator Kahlil Greene, who in 2019 The first president of the black student body at Yale, he says he does not feel optimistic about the future of the US and worries that the country is “in a downward spiral.”
“It feels like there are things that can’t be resolved about fixing things, and I just can’t think of a way to do it, although I’d like to try,” he said.
Robert Reich has the opposite opinion. “I’m optimistic because of our resilience,” the 80-year-old University of California, Berkeley professor and former US labor secretary told Greene.
“I’m old enough to have seen this country come back from all kinds of things [like] depression and wars. Because if we don’t, we stop trying. If we don’t keep hope in our hearts, we really stop fighting the good fight to make the world better.”
