Pessimism Prevails in US, Poll Shows
(March 17) -- What's become of the American Dream? Headlines today are calling it a "nightmare," "hallucination" and "sour" after a new survey reveals a pessimistic nation.
In phone interviews with 1,000 adults, Xavier University found that a clear majority of Americans feel that things are much worse off now than they were a generation ago, and that they will only continue to decline. The questions, presented in phone interviews in February, focused on many sides of the American Dream, from opportunity and wealth to financial security, freedom and family.
Of those asked, 68 percent said it would be more difficult for their children to achieve that dream than it was for them, and almost as many believe it is harder now than it was for their parents' generation. The country's long-term prospects are in bad shape too, according to the group. Fifty-eight percent thought the U.S. was in the midst of a steady decline as a world power.
This was the interesting part to me:
Indeed, survey takers discovered that the most pessimistic of all demographic groups was white, middle-aged women located in the Midwest. By contrast, they found:
African-Americans, Latinos and first- or second-generation immigrants view the Dream more positively on nearly every measure ... than do white Americans. Or in other words, the part of our society that is still, by and large, worse off in terms of social or economic measurements is also the same group that is most positive about the American Dream.