Hard Work and the American Dream

“The American dream” is a century-old phrase used to describe the idea anyone can achieve success in the United States through hard work and determination. Today, about half of Americans (53%) say that dream is still possible. 

Another 41% say the American dream was once possible for people to achieve. It is not anymore. And 6% say it was never possible, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of 8,709 U.S. adults.

While this is the first time The PEW Research Center has asked about the American dream in this way, other surveys have long found that sizable shares of Americans are skeptical about the future of the American dream.

No one understands better than those who work hard and do not achieve the success expected from hard work. Rural Americans know people who work hard yet struggle to get by, buffeted by globalized economic forces and constricted by a scarcity of opportunities where they live. The Washington Post adds to the theory of getting ahead due to hard work.

Opinion | Americans care too much about hard work, The Washington Post

While people all over the world have a reverence for hard work, the United States is unusual because we’ve woven it into our national mythology. The American Dream says that if you work hard you’ll succeed, and we define success in monetary terms. The inverse of that idea is that if you don’t work hard you’ll fail, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.

For many, there is a moral hierarchy involved: Those who work hard are simply better and more admirable than those who don’t. It’s ironic that many of those who hold to this idea with the most fervor also know intimately that the American Dream is a lie.

I’m talking about residents of rural America, where that moral hierarchy of work is a vital part of so many communities’ ethos. Yet no one understands better than them that hard work does not guarantee success. Most rural Americans know people who work hard yet struggle to get by, buffeted by globalized economic forces and constricted by a scarcity of opportunities where they live.

If rural Whites who vote overwhelmingly for Republicans have noticed that today’s conservatism defines wealth, not work, as the true sign of virtue, it isn’t readily apparent. As far as Republicans are concerned, work is optional for the wealthy but required for the poor. Republicans want you to document your hours or risk losing your Medicaid coverage, but if you suggest that we ask the same of those who want to keep receiving the favorable tax treatment of capital gains, they’ll think you lost your mind.

It isn’t hard to understand why the economic overclass and their political representatives would invest in the untrue ideas that struggling people must be lazy and that hard work is the only path to virtue and success. Those ideas help justify everything from low taxes on the wealthy to low wages and worker protections, to a weak system of social supports.

Yet evidence shows that providing people with health care, education and protections on the job doesn’t enable them to indulge their inherent laziness, it enables people who work to succeed. In a 2020 report comparing social mobility in different countries — meaning, the ability of children to do better economically than their parents — the World Economic Forum ranked the United States at No. 27. The countries with the highest social mobility were in Scandinavia, countries known for their robust social welfare infrastructure.

Every country’s policies reflect an ideology about work. The European Union mandates 20 days of paid vacation — a full month — in addition to holidays, and most member countries give their workers even more. The idea is that work is important, but so is the rest of your life. In America, federal law guarantees workers precisely zero paid vacation days and zero paid holidays.

Workers understand what those policies say about how much our society cares about them. They’ve gotten the message. Which might be why in that Wall Street Journal poll, young people were significantly less likely than older people to say hard work was a very important value to them. They’re willing to work hard, but they’re less likely to believe that toil and drudgery are their own reward. Maybe they have the right idea.