Gailey 1

Christina E
.
Gailey
Mrs
. Bricker
E11H3
8 March 2015
The American Dream today is the belief that every US citizen should have equal opportunity to achieve success and happiness with hard work, determination, and initiative
.
Whether or not it is possible for everyone to achieve the dream is the real question
.Although it

does varym Many Americans think that they will have achieved the dream once they have their dream house, dream car, dream job, a family, and be well financially supported, although it does vary for different Americans
.
Nothing comes easy, and the conflict too many in achieving the
American Dream is economic/income inequality
.
Statistics from the Wall Street Journal show that Americans in the lower income quintile would need to be given over 50,000 more in federal transfers to raise their overall income to the average market income of U
.
S
.
families
.
There is a constant debate on whether or not income inequality is affecting Americans ability to reach the American Dream, there is many factors to look at
.
At an Intelligence Square
U
.
S
. event it was mentioned that income inequality leads to unequal to access of opportunity like education . Education is and could be a big issue with income inequality because those that cannot attend college end up in the same place their family was in the beginning
.
It is not fair that the children who do not have parents with enough financial support cannot get the education they need to become more successful, instead just usually a low­income job
.
The Daily
American mentioned that students from the poorest families are overrepresented in public

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two­year institutions, which tend to have lower completion rates, while those from wealthier families are abundant in doctoral­granting institutions
.
Obama is trying to help out with the first two years of college free, but it has not happened yet and can only do so much
.
Not only do children from low­income families struggle having enough financial support for an education, but while in a free public school they may be the ones to get judged for not dressing like the students that come from a high­income family and live in big houses and are so much closer to achieving the American Dream
.
With the action of being judged, children may dread going to school, or they may become depressed, and that causes them to not get the significant education that they need
.
At the Intelligence Square Event they also mentioned that income inequality leads to unequal access to resources such as nutrition
.
Everyone should be able to get the same nutrition, and have money to buy at least healthy food, but this is not always the case
.
Food Stamps are a solution for most, but people that need them are sometimes not allowed to get them
.
The high­income families may be able to fill their fridge and cupboards weekly, while low­income families may struggle providing a meal from day to day
.
Children growing up never picture a life where they are struggling to keep food on the table every day, they dream of so much more, but with lack of education due to lack of financial support, many do not have much choice
.
They made an argument that the unequal access to opportunity and resources have left children born to the poor families with little hope to escape poverty themselves
.
Loretta Lynn wrote the song
“Coal Miner’s Daughter” referring to the low­income family she came from, but she describes

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how they did what they could and just made it by with love, but in the twenty­first century, love is not enough for an American Dream to many
.
Not only does low­income effect children’s opportunity to