“I’m going to read you some possible defi nitions or descriptions of the American Dream, and for each one I’d like you to tell me if that’s very much what you understand the American Dream to mean, or sort of what it means, or not what it means. . . . To own a home.” Very much, 79 percent; sort of, 18 percent; not, 3 percent; don’t know, 1 percent.

A continent which scarce suffi ced to maintain a half million savages now supports nearly two hun-dred and fi ft y times that number of as active and industrious people as there are in the world. Th e huge and empty land has been fi lled with homes, roads, railways, schools, colleges, hospi-tals, and all the comforts of the most advanced material civiliza-tion. (Ibid., 401–402)

Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story, of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.It is that promise that’s always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifi ce each of us can pursue our indi-vidual dreams, but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams, as well. Th at’s why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women, students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors, found the courage to keep it alive.We meet at one of those defi ning moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the Ameri-can promise has been threatened once more. (Obama 2008

As one unhappy middle-class correspondent told Ehrenreich:Try investigating people like me who didn’t have babies in high school, who made good grades, who work hard and don’t kiss a lot of ass and instead of getting promoted or paid fairly must regress to working for $7/hr., having their student loans in per-petual deferment, living at home with their parents, and gen-erally exist in debt which they feel they may never get out of.

I could have been a lot better off but through my own foolish-ness, I’m not. What causes poverty? Foolishness. When I came out of the service, my wife had saved a few dollars and I had a few bucks. I wanted to have a good time, I’m throwing money away like water. Believe me, had I used my head right, I could have had a house. I don’t feel sorry for myself, what happened, happened, you know. Of course you pay for it. (Lane 1962, 69