The possibility of living out the American Dream in the USA today

According to J.D. Vance’s arguments in the introduction to his book Hillbilly Elegy. A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the possibility of living out the American Dream in the US today is limited for the working class. This situation is triggered by several factors such as economy, culture, and the individual’s own attitude.

First of all, the American white working class has been struggling with economic insecurity because “manufacturing jobs have gone overseas and middle-class jobs are harder to come by for people without college degrees” (ll. 80-81). Furthermore, according to studies, “upward mobility fell off in the 1970s and never really recovered” (ll. 102- 100). This implies the economy of the US makes it hard for white working-class people to find jobs and have a stable income that, in turn, can help them overcome their social and economic status.

Another factor that the text suggests makes the American Dream hard to achieve today is a culture of poverty that has been perpetuated from one generation to the next in white working-class communities. As Vance puts it, “poverty is the family tradition” (l. 37) of white working-class Americans who descend from Irish or Scottish immigrants. Very few of these people have achieved upward mobility throughout history. As Vance suggests, this is only in part due to a context of economic insecurity (ll. 78-82) and mainly becaus...