Opinion | The American dream is dead. Here are five ways to fix the system and launch version 2.0
- The American dream works only when growth is shared and there are few structural hurdles to advancement
- For starters, it’s necessary to remove tax breaks that widen the wealth gap, write off student loans in return for national service and tie the minimum wage to inflation rates
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed the “pursuit of happiness” a central feature of American life. Since 1776, each generation has sought upward social mobility; and for a long time, many – though not all – met with prosperity.
For over a century after the civil war, breakthroughs in energy, medicine, telecommunications and transport reshaped America (and the world). Economic productivity grew dramatically, as did the average lifespan. And, for most of this period, a rising tide really did lift most boats.
Politicians from both parties embraced the national ethos that anyone could get ahead through hard work and gradually, if imperfectly, made it accessible to immigrants, non-whites, women, the disabled and others who had historically been excluded from the promise of American life.
But when economic growth began to slow in the 1970s, voters grew frustrated, while oil shocks, Watergate and the ignominious end of the Vietnam war compounded the public’s sense of what president Jimmy Carter effectively called America’s “malaise”.
