American citizens that are in poverty have endured not only the embarrassment of unemployment, under employment, inadequate food and run down housing but they also experience the rudeness directed at them by “better off Americans." United states have a main value system and beliefs, that everyone should work hard and strive to succeed in material terms, if you work hard you will succeed, and those who do not succeed have only to blame their laziness and immorality or other character defects.
This is similar to the “American Dream.” The American Dream is a deception, we are lead to believe that everything is equally or balanced. This very harmful for those who strive for this “dream” we have to find the difference between the right to dream and the right to succeed, it becomes psychologically hard to uphold and it is blurred politically wise. It becomes especially hard to maintain because the dreams keeps Americans from seeing the reality of daily struggles, and makes them believe they have “significant likelihood” not just a chance. The right to desire success, becomes an ideological replacement for a guarantee of success . So when some see the chances for success are slim to none the “American dream” changes for the worse.
The dreamer is let down, and can suffer great deal of failure and depression. It becomes detrimental because success is so central to the American self-image, it becomes expected as in hope to achieve. This causes Americans, who are not cordial about failure, reality becomes their fear and they are left behind.
America blames the dreamer if he or she do not become successful, or even think that person was not mean to be successful, it wasn’t in their virtue. The motto “survivor of the fittest” Horchild stated, “Hard work and virtue combined with scarce resources produce a few spectacular winners and many dismissible losers” this was the theme for John D. Rockefeller, a capitalist his thoughts were that individuals who did not become successful wasn’t because they did not try hard enough, but it was jut part of life that it was way of life balancing out “The American Beauty rose can be produce in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to it’s beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business, it is merly the working out of a nature and law of god”
The “American Dream” is attempt to ignore social structure by creating excuses. Not viewing that it is hard for “everyone” to succeed in this dream with limited and scarce resources. Some people are poor because they are unable to work or unable to find a job.
They are many reasons for the unemployment, underemployment and poverty because today, as in the past millions of workers find it difficult or impossible to find work, particularly full-time and permanent jobs with decent wages, benefits, and security. As more companies restructure their workforces replacing many permanent workers with temporary workers or with lower wage workers in corporate facilities that are now going over seas for cheaper labor. Emphasis on the ideology of individualism has fostered a positive view of successful people as virtuous and a negative view of poverty as punishment for the non-virtuous.
Attacks on the poor have commonly focused on public assistance recipients, who are often seen as the most serious violators of the work ethic. While significant numbers of Americans have regularly challenged these hyper-individualistic beliefs, many still accept them. Challenging this hyper-individualistic value system is a countering value system that accents greater interpersonal cooperation, mutual support, and group- oriented values.
XoxO,
kitty
