Andrew Ross Sorkin

I actually think that the dream that shifted in the 1920s, for better or worse, is the dream that exists today in America here today and I would argue on TikTok and everywhere else.

Which is – I think prior to 1920, it really was more of a Horatio Alger kind of story that people were pursuing.

And I think in the 20s, in part because of the stock market and everything else and industrialization and going to big cities and everything else with the sort of elites that they saw, it became about the lottery ticket.

It became about – I don't know about a get-rich-quick scheme, but it became about getting rich.

Getting super – it wasn't just about having a better life than your parents.

It was about something else.

It was about sort of reaching for the stars in this other way.

And that was partially, by the way, a function of the media.

This is the first time big magazines were all of a sudden putting CEOs on the cover of these magazines.

They used to have Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh on the cover.

And now Charlie Mitchell is on the cover of these magazines.

And so I think that we –

as a culture, almost turn these people into heroes.

And here we are close to 100 years later, and you're seeing it almost in the exact same way.

Well, it's interesting because I think the modern conversation about the American dream today

often is actually not probably look back 100 years.

It's probably look back to the 50s.

People would call it what I describe as the leave it to beaver American dream.

That was a very white dream, but it meant that you could buy a house, you'd have two kids, a dog, and everything would kind of just work out.

And by the way, this was a period where unionization was a huge part of the economy.