The year 2009 was an extremely tough year for all. The stock market crashed, thousands of people lost their jobs and their homes. Homeowners became a displaced people by moving back with their parents or living in shared housing arrangements. Job loss reached an alarming 15% and thousands of people began receiving unemployment insurance from the government. One has to wonder what happens to a nation that has completely become poor? To add to the insult is the increasing gasoline and food prices. How can we go to work and feed our children? Then one asks, what will our children do when they grow up? Will there be resources for them? Will they be able to own a home of their own if their parents can’t make it now? Oh…there are so many worries that parents have for their children…especially owning a home. What can we do to help our children? The so called 401K has been cut in half and has turned into the 201K. Our parents, our grandparents have to come out of retirement to just live.
I won’t complain too much, there have been some great things that happened this year. Obama became our 44th president and he has many promises. We hope and look for a leader that shows promise in our future and it seems as he does. We still have our health, as our state Medical insurance was able to help my children with healthcare. I’m ashamed to say that we had to apply for food stamps. It’s embarrassing because no one in my family has ever applied for this government assistance. I’ve been the working parent for 14 years and when I lost my job, thank goodness, I was accepted to a registered nursing program at a community college. I only have a semester to complete, but my funds are extremely tight.
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...ney if they didn’t need it, but that was a rare incidence.
Overall, not only will this help with the foreclosure problem, it will solve two other problems, namely the auto industry and the well being of our elderly people. It is known that the American people usually send their parents off to “old folks homes”. It is about time to step up to the plate and really take care of the elderly population, after all wasn’t our parents there for us when we were growing up? It is best to return the favor and now take care of them, that is what family is all about.
In the meantime, my family is living on a lean slice of the American dream. We are struggling to keep our home as well as our family together though this extremely tough time in our lives. We will be wiser in the long run to not take for granted what a great country we have.
Is the American Dream dead or alive? To many the American Dream is the ability to work hard enough to fulfill their dream and unlock opportunities for success. In the article “Is the American Dream Still Possible”, David Wallechinsky demonstrates the many problems in Americans way. He provides family and individuals stories that explain the reason they don’t believe in the American Dream like prices going up and citizens not getting paid enough. He makes his claim convincing to make individuals believe that his perspective is correct.
We are all putting money into a pot, and some of us aren’t using the money or the resources that we end up helping out. There are a lot of programs that are out there to help support lower waged workers or people that can’t find jobs. Some of these programs are food stamps, medicare, and lower income housing. Everyone helps pay for these things, but there are only a certain amount of people that can use them. If you make a certain amount of money and it is too high, then you don’t qualify for them, even though maybe it isn’t high enough to live comfortably. Retirement may not come as easy for the younger generation because of the fact that people are using the social security, and we may not have the amount that we need when we retire. How our society is set up, you almost get more taken away the harder you work, and for the ones that don’t make as much, get all of the
Imagine if you could see a whole city from your home; it stretches as far as the eye can see and has just house after house. Some houses are white, some are red, some are blue, and so on. This seems fairly normal and you might think I’m describing a housing development or something like it. The only problem is that those houses are not as they appear, they are actually tents and they are being inhabited by the poverty stricken population of your city. These “tent cities” have popped up all over the United States. Many different people live there, and have all have lost their homes some way or another. If Yakima can break down these barriers of poverty, we will never become one of these “tent cities”. We must figure out ways to help the low-income population to get jobs they need to support their families. If you are in some kind of post-high school education you must have some source of money and ambition to do better than your parents before you. According to the story “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide”, by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, in the book Class Matters; “the economic advantage once believed to last only two or three generations is now believed to last closer to five.” This means that what you decide to do with your life and well off you are determines what other generations of your family will do.
The American Dream is starting to become just a dream- People are not believing in the American Dream
Poverty is a complex and growing problem in the United States. As of right now there is no solution. There are proposals and acts, such as Obama Care, that were enacted in an attempt to help people in poverty, and there are so many organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and The Hunger Project, that try to aid people when they start to lack the necessities, like food and shelter. College students are graduating college with a large amount of student loans and no way of paying them off, people are being evicted from their homes, and employees are being laid off. The unemployment rate in the United States in 2015 was five percent, that’s about fifteen million people. It’s becoming difficult for people to find jobs, therefore making it hard for people to get back on their feet and start living a comfortable lifestyle. Poverty in the
It’s five O’clock in the morning and today was the day where my family and I finally got a chance to start over! We’ve been waiting for this day for as long as we can remember. I’m so excited to start a new job and finally be able to put food on the table for my wife and kids here in America!
Currently, the American economy is on a record setting pace that is continuously strengthening our economic security. The level of unemployment in America is at a record low. Almost every able-body American is on the job working towards their American dream, and we, the Democratic Party, will not be satisfied until everyone can enjoy their American dream.
The last quarter twelve percent (12%) of American homes are in default of their loan, or in foreclosure. Add that to the previous four quarters and that is eight point seven (8.7) million homes in crisis. (Further on known as HIC's) The United States “Bail Out” helped major mortgage corporations, and their chief executive officers (CEO's), but not the families that are in, or were in these HIC's across America.
There has been almost a 10% increase in the number of people who do not believe that their children will be able to live the American Dream (Time). America is experiencing a huge disparity in class right now.
America is in a Great Recession, and the American Dream seems to be dying (if not already dead) for many Americans. I don’t think that the American Dream is dead; it just needs rehabilitation due to the injuries it sustained at the hands of an unregulated government. Though we are in a Great Recession, every American can progress their lives for the betterment of themselves and future generations. Brandon King (2011) in The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold? : “.the most worrisome problem is inequality: that wealth is concentrated into the hands of a rich minority.” Because of this, many Americans and politicians are arguing about either “raising the taxes on the rich” or “supporting the richest sectors in America” (Thomas, 2011) to stimulate the economy.
Fortunately, contrary to what we had originally thought we were one of the few lucky ones. Our family stayed together and as immigrants, we continue to struggle through the many negative stigmas. This is not the ending to our story but simply a story of new beginnings in a foreign country. As my parents say frequently “America is the land of opportunity” and this is an opportunity I will hold tightly and never let
In a country where 45 million people struggle to survive below the poverty line, inflation continues to rise as wages remain the same. What happened to the American Dream? As the rich continue to get richer, even those in the middle class can’t seem to catch a break. The structure of American society makes it nearly impossible for those in poverty to rise above, and there are other factors, including race and gender, which play a role.
At first, my very first experience in the United States is so bored, depressed, and hopeless. It was a new journey for me, I learn a language that I had never learned before, I get bullied just because I am the only one Asian who do not speak English. However, my life has become better when I realized that the “American Dream” is possible. Well, for me, the term “American Dream” is fitting for the one who attends at school, who has confidence and hard work. It might be a dream for my generation but not my parents. I saw my parents struggle to keep my brother and I fed. They worked more than two jobs, just to help us finish our education, paying our rent, and everything. I saw them suffer in tears, to sacrificed their future to let my brother and me to get a better education and opportunities to
The foreclosure crisis has no simple solution since so many things affect it, but fixing each thing one by one will gradually help. Incentives for people to buy are fantastic ideas. The $8,000 tax credit to first time homeowners is a good start. There could be others that don’t exclude current homeowners. The first few months’ mortgage could be paid for, or provide furnished houses. President Obama is very intellectual and I think he has the capacity to make wise decisions and fix our foreclosure crisis.
Today, people’s dreams of what America is to them has changed once again. Today, many parents have the dream for a better family life than they had. Family life has changed. Many people are getting divorces and having stepchildren. These children have grown up with the American Dream of providing a better Family life by financially supporting them better, spending more time with them, and expressing their love more readily.