
Excerpt:
As the U.S. celebrates Independence Day, national pride is at a historic low. But new data reveal that belief in the American Dream remains alive and well.
Roughly “7 in 10 Americans are optimistic about the American Dream,” according to the annual American Dream Snapshot released by the Archbridge Institute, a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to lifting barriers to human flourishing. The majority of respondents also believe the concept of the American Dream has the power to unite Americans “around a shared belief, regardless of…different backgrounds and viewpoints,” revealing remarkable resiliency for one of the oldest and strongest national themes.
From a sample size of 2,131 Americans across the country surveyed in May, 69 percent of respondents, regardless of race, income, or education, “say they have either achieved the American Dream or are on their way to achieving it,” according to the survey. “Only 30% of people think the American Dream is out of reach.” The snapshot’s results reveal a 2 percent increase in optimism compared to last year’s findings, which revealed some of the highest rates of pessimism found by Archbridge since it began its snapshot report in 2020. While the improvement in this year’s results is noteworthy, overall pessimism is still higher than previously found in 2023.
Read the full article at Reason.
Read the American Dream Snapshot here.