Five myths about the American dream

The text is about myths that people believe in about the American dream. Five different myths are mentioned in the text. The first myth is that some people think the American dream is mostly about getting rich. But a national survey showed that there are only 6 percent of Americans who ranked “wealth” as one of their first choices, to describe the American dream. Most people in that survey rather answered things like “a good life for my family”, “financial security”, “freedom”,” opportunity” or “pursuit of happiness” as their best definition for the American dream.

The second myth is about homeownership and its value for the American dream. 90 percent of the Americans think that homeownership has an important value for the definition the American dream. But only 7 percent have ranked homeownership as one of the mostly important definitions. Homeownership is much overvalued, when it comes to the definition of the American dream.

One of the myths in the text is about, how people think that it is only the Americans that believe in the American dream. But already in the 16th century western Europeans came to settle in America, for the opportunities that the American dream represented. Today immigrants from all countries still come to America in hopes of building a better life.