Is the American Dream in Decline?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is open to debate. I'm John Donfan. Hi everybody. America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary comes this weekend, and it's bringing with it a lot of interesting thought and conversation around some questions about particularly Where we stand right now as a country, the state of democracy, and the thing we want to focus on, the American dream, that guiding belief that all of us should have the freedom and opportunity to succeed and create a better life for ourselves and our families. 250 years in, how are we doing at that? Some new polls say not so well, with only a third of the population saying they believe the American dream still holds true, with inflation and a growing Affordability crisis and young people feeling pushed out of that dream of buying their first homes, is the American dream a myth, or is it something that can still come true?
That's the question we're reconsidering today with the help of our guest moderator, Naima Reza, my friend and brilliant journalist and host of the podcast Smart Girl Dumb Questions, which you can listen to wherever you listen to your podcasts. Naima, it's all yours. Take it away.
The American Dream. It's a term that was dreamed up and popularized by the writer and historian James Treslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America. Since then the American dream has been conflated with home ownership. It's become synonymous with ideas of upward mobility, meritocracy, and generational progress. In 2012, 53% of Americans surveyed said that they believed the American dream held true. Today, that number has fallen to just 36%. Almost 20% of respondents in the same survey said they thought the American dream never existed. So is the American dream a mythology, some aberration of history, or a reality? Our debaters today have conflicting viewpoints, and they're here to duke it out, respectfully, of course.
Arguing yes, that the American dream is in decline is David Leonhart, a senior writer at the New York Times who might show up in your inbox in the mornings with the morning newsletter. He's also the author of the book Ours was the shining future, the story of the American Dream. Welcome, David.
Thank you. It's great to be here.
And arguing no to the question, is the American Dream in Decline, is Michael Strain, political economist and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He's also written a book, this one called The American Dream Is Not Dead, but Populism Could Kill It. Welcome, Michael.
Thank you for having me. Great to be here.
Before we jump into opening arguments, I just wanna start off with a question because David, you used to uh be more on Michael's side of the debate. And I really wanna know uh before we get into it, kind of the headline of how that changed for you.
Yeah. So I started covering the economy around the year 2000 and many signs, economic signs looked brighter back then. I think people were more optimistic about the what used to be called and still sometimes is the neoliberal order. This idea that if we have more free trade, if we have less regulation, um the United States will become freer uh and richer, and the rest of the world will also become freer and richer. I find that less persuasive and less likely to be true than I did during those heady days uh of the late nineteen nineties and early. Early two thousands.
That makes a lot of sense. Michael, I'm curious what you make of the the changes that David is speaking about, the increased pessimism, the recession, the post recession era economy. Has that ever made you doubt your conviction that the American dream is alive?
No, uh it has not. Correct. I uh uh have enormous respect for David and first became a regular reader of his following the two thousand eight global financial crisis, for which I believe David won uh the Pulitzer Prize and very well deserved. you know, that was an incredibly traumatic Horrible event. If you look at the years that followed the 2008 financial crisis, it took until 2014 for the median wage of workers to recover its 2007 level.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:38
2
What is the historical origin and meaning of the American Dream?
4:38–21:28
3
Why does David Leonhardt argue that the American Dream is in decline?
21:28–37:08
4
How do health‑care costs, life expectancy, and social indicators affect the Dream’s health?
37:08–44:58
5
How does Michael Strain counter the claim that the American Dream is fading?
44:58–50:23