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American Dream

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American Dream No Longer Reality? The United States is in really poor shape with the recession. In Bob Herbert’s article “Hiding from Reality,” he points out that unless the United States makes some drastic changes, the American Dream will fade away due to the increasing difficulties people will have in trying to reach it. The main problems include struggling to find a job after college, struggling to buy a home and car and paying for them, and overall issues with recession in the United States. Getting a degree and a college education is a great thing, but what use is it if people cannot find jobs? According to Herbert, there is not much of the American dream left (564). The economy is in terrible shape; the education in public schools is not as good as it should be, there are budget deficits and overseas warfare. This all show the horrible and sad shape that our country is in. The problem is, according to Herbert, that we as Americans are in denial about the extent of the rot in our system (564). We are in such bad shape that it can take a decade or more for employment to rise back to a level where one can say that the economy is good. This is due to the slow progress we are making in trying to improve the economy. Workers born in foreign countries gained 656,000 jobs while workers born in the US lost 1.2 million jobs in 2009 (Herbert 564). However, the immigrant workers experienced much less pay than Americans would have received. This shows that many places will hire immigrants for less pay instead of Americans. This discrimination needs to end and a full employment economy needs to be put into plan so that anyone who wants to work can work and make a decent earning. It is a slap in the face to get a degree and then not be able to find a job. Everyone is cutting costs because no one can afford to live easily with the way the economy is. Changes need to be

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