Only 36% of American voters believe the American dream is still possible; Half say the system “is against people like me”: survey

Just over a third of American voters believe the American dream, which holds that those who work hard can get ahead regardless of their background, is still possible, according to a new poll.

An October Wall Street Journal/NORC poll found that 36% of voters said the American dream “is still true,” 45% said it “was true once but not now,” and 18% said it “ It was never true.”

Half of American voters also believe life in America is worse than it was half a century ago, while 30% disagreed and said it had improved over that period, the poll shows.

Similarly, half of respondents agreed with the statement that the U.S. economic and political system “is stacked against people like me,” compared to 39% who disagreed with that statement.

Just over a third of American voters believe that the American dream, which holds that those who work hard can achieve it, is possible.

The sentiment cuts across partisan lines: Democrats and Republicans alike mention that life is “objectively worse” and that the American dream is “in the past tense,” according to voters who spoke to the Journal.

“We have a nice house in the suburbs and we have a two-car garage,” Oakley Graham, a 30-year-old stay-at-home father from Greenwood, Missouri, who voted for President Biden, told Congress. exit. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say money was tight.”

“[N]“No matter how good it looks on the outside, I feel like we are all just a couple of paychecks away from being on the street,” he added, blaming in part the decline of strong American unions.

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A Wall Street Journal/NORC poll in October found that 36% of voters said the American dream “is still true,” 45% said it “was true once but not now,” and 18% said it was true. “It was never true.” stock.adobe.com

Meanwhile, John Lasher, a 78-year-old retired aircraft carrier and submarine electrical inspector and supporter of former President Donald Trump from nearby Springfield, Missouri, blamed Biden and his administration for rising inflation when he spoke to the Journal.

“With inflation, you’re working hard just to make ends meet, and then any extra work you do is just trying not to stay in the hole,” he said, also mentioning that in the past “if you showed up for work, you did “You did your job well and tried to help, you were rewarded.”

Diana Walker, a 62-year-old African American from an Atlanta suburb, also told the outlet that her children “have not been rewarded” and that circumstances were “better” for their growth.

The sentiment transcends party lines: Democrats and Republicans alike mention that life is “objectively worse” and that the American dream is in the “past tense,” according to voters. Vasyl – stock.adobe.com

“I’m African American and the odds are always against black people,” she added.

Unemployment rates for black Americans hit a record low of 5% in April.

The poll found that 68% of black American voters said economic and political forces were “against” them. About half of Hispanic and white voters said the same.

Survey responses were more split along gender lines, with 28% of female voters and 46% of male voters saying the American dream is still alive.

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An age difference also shows: 48% of voters over 65 believe in the potential to advance through hard work, while 28% of voters under 50 agree.

Unemployment rates for black Americans hit a record low of 5% in April.Shutterstock

Previous polls found that 48% of voters believed in the American dream in 2016, and 53% did in 2012.

But put slightly differently, a 2022 Journal poll found that 68% of registered American voters agreed when asked whether those who work hard in America are likely to get ahead.

Inflation outpaced increases in workers’ wages in both 2021 and 2022, but could reverse its trend later this year. Mortgage rates have also reached their highest levels since 2000.

However, the percentage of American voters who currently rate the economy as “excellent” or “good” has doubled since last May, according to the survey, as those who rated it as “not so good” or “bad” fell from 83% to 65%. % during the same period.

The poll released Friday is not the only one that reveals pessimism about the state of the United States. A national NBC News poll released last week found that only 19% of respondents were confident that life would be better for their children than for themselves — the lowest percentage to give that answer since the outlet began surveying the question. in the fall of 1990.

That same survey found that only 29% of Americans were better off than they thought at this stage of their lives.

When asked about a hypothetical election showdown in 2024, the NBC poll showed former President Donald Trump leading President Biden by two percentage points, 46% to 44%, with 7% saying they did not want to vote for either. main candidates.

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The poll also gave Republicans a two-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, with 47% support compared to 45% for Democrats. The remaining 8% said they were not sure which party they wanted to control Congress after next year’s elections.

The Journal-NORC poll, which was conducted Oct. 19-24, surveyed 1,163 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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