The Eclipse of the American Dream: An Endangered Middleclass

By Gil Villagrán, MSW

As the European colonists came to the so-called New World of North America, risking everything seeking a new life away from the stilted class structured theocratic monarchies of Europe, the idea of the American Dream emerged. The dream for a better life, free or affordable land, religious freedom, to break free from “one’s station in life” which was determined by one’s ancestors. The American Dream is an idea that continues to propel both the native born as well as immigrants from everywhere for a better life in America. So what is this American Dream? Ask yourself, your co-workers, neighbors, relatives from your ancestral land, the most recent immigrant you know, and you will get different yet similar answers. To live free—free from the tyranny of the state or from poverty; for work, an education for one’s children, where one can earn a living through honest work and live in peace; to become a homeowner with an opportunity to create a life for your family. These honest modest dreams are the backbone of working class Americans and immigrants striving to become Americans.

Yet there is growing evidence that our nation’s working class with hourly wages is increasingly unable to fulfill their American dream in spite of getting more education, working longer hours or two jobs, adding workers in the household, never taking time off for illness, child and family care, or a family vacation. Americans work more hours than most Europeans, often have more frustrations, more job insecurity, and often live shorter lives due to stress. It has been said; Americans work themselves to an early grave.

Who are the working class? What class best describes your economic circumstances? A quick guide using 2005 earnings data:
Lower, 25 % of workers’ annual income: $ 10,000 to 22,500
Middle, 33 % of workers (high school graduates): $ 30,000 to 62,000
Higher, 25 % of workers (college graduates): $ 77,500 and up
Higher 5 % (graduate or professional degree): $ 167,000 and up
Highest 1 % (executive of corporation): $ 350,000 and up

However, these are earnings from work, and do not include assets such as property, financial investments (stocks and other income producing assets). In fact, the truly rich do not earn their money from labor of any sort, but from earnings on investments. The highest wealth in America is now inherited wealth—that is, based upon who your parents were—like back in the days of the founding of the nation. America is a land with a new kind of aristocracy: a corporate aristocracy based upon wealth amassed from corporate profits to stock owners and their top corporate officers, the chief executive officers (CEOs) who manage profit producing industries wh measuring wealth in billions. These CEOs earn millions per year, if not billions themselves, as reward for making their major stockowners even richer.

So what is the lower class to middle class worker to the CEO class? The worker bees, the drones who make or sell and certainly buy the products, who clean the offices and factories. Also critically, it is the lower class and middle class who build and pay in taxes for the vast infrastructure that enables corporations to function: the transportation, energy, communications networks; the water and sewage systems; and the educational system that trains workers, managers and executives. Another critical function of society—the police and criminal justice system to keep public safety and prevent lawlessness or even insurrection, and the vast military to ensure the American empire continues to function in the world. Who fills these ranks? The lower and middle class. Wealthy youth never risk their lives as beat cops or rank soldiers, but for the lower class, these are considered good jobs with higher than low wages and the prestige of serving your community and your nation.

But current middle class wages are not enough to afford a middle class lifestyle of owning a home (even if it costs a lifetime to pay for it), sending your children to college, expecting some upward mobility. In the last five years, actual working class wages have remained constant while income for the top 1% increased 23%. Imagine such a raise in your wages. It is unlikely to happen. The American Dream project of the Change to Win Federation identifies four elements to the American Dream: a job that pays to support your family, affordable health care, being able to ensure your children have opportunity to succeed, and having a secure and dignified retirement.

How many middle class Americans are certain they can achieve these goals? If we have an endangered middleclass, then are we witnessing the eclipse of the American Dream?