What the American Dream is:

The “American Dream” concept was created in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, who stated the following phrase: “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”.  It is based in the belief that everyone in the US should live in a set of ideals, which are Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity and Equality. This represents freedom,  the opportunity to succeed and prosper.

That’s why the USA it’s also known as The Land of Opportunity. They are known for having a massive economic power and,  compared to its neighboring countries, the quality of life in the USA it’s much higher. 

Is it a real dream or just another myth?

First let’s see the data. The USA  has such a high HDI (0.924). But it’s also known for having a bad distribution in terms of education, healthcare and economics. 

Also, most of the public services that we’ve got in Spain are private in the USA. This is a huge disadvantage, because every small injury or disease could cost you a lot of money if you don’t have a good insurance. This causes repulsion towards the health system because people just don’t want to spend that much money on health. 

Furthermore, loans are a common thing in the United States. People are drowning in debt, but not only medical debt, also scholar debt and debt in general. This causes a complicated debt system in which getting  that debt is a totally normal situation. That is indeed risky because getting indebted is extremely easy.

Another big problem in the USA that you might see as an european citizen is drugs. Drugs are a massive problem, especially opioids, because you can get them without a recipe. That is because of the interest that big pharmaceutical companies have like Purdue pharma. 

A contact in the USA explained to us how drugs are often consumed in public and how everyone just assumed it as a normal situation. The contact is from Chicago, and explains how she sees junkies everyday when she comes back from work. She also knows how big the difference is when she gets out of work.

This is very common, especially in certain districts like Kensington, Philadelphia, and a lot other cities like Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and others. In the link below from the American Addiction Center you can check the consumption of each drug in the most drug consuming cities..

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/substance-abuse-by-city

We have ended up getting a conclusion. What we call “The American Dream” today, is probably the reflection of what the actual dream was a long time ago. The United States has become a place where it’s common to immigrate. But it is only because it’s the wealthiest country in the zone. All immigrants that come from Central and South America go to the USA because it’s the closest and wealthiest place to go. But when you see it in an European vision we can see a lot of problems that you will simply not have in Europe.