The Survival of the American Dream

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2024136,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular

I wanted to share this article that was published in this week's Time Magazine.  The timing of this article couldn't have come at a better time for me.  Going into my fifth week here, I have gotten sick of hearing about how fantastic America is. My appreciation for my country has definitely increased and I miss many of its familiar ways, but I still do not idolize my culture the way my peers here do.  I have had many discussions about the reality of America with my peers, but still they refuse to believe it is anything less than perfect.  The general sentiment here is that 'it's easier to be successful in the United States if you have the talent and the desire to put in the effort than it is in my country (Italy)" (quote from the Time article).  For most, the only thing keeping them in Italy for college is their families. 

I didn't know that the American dream still existed in other countries beyond third world or war-ridden countries.  I thought that it had died after the world watched America suffer through a great depression, WWII, Nixon, September 11th, etc.  It seems so clear that America is no less susceptible to hard times and corruption to me and my American peers. We study 'the American Dream' as a historical sentiment written about by Fitzgerald that is currently withering. (Only 8 pages before this article on Italy, there is one on the United States discussing “the growing sense that our best days as a nation are behind us, that our kids won’t live as well as we did…”)

It all makes for an interesting conversation at the very least, and I am definetely having my fill of those here in Italy. 

(I recognize the article is written about foreign countries in general and their appeal to Italian youths.  I simply chose to focus on the American lure, because of its relationship to my current experiences.)