Soul Hangout: Is the American Dream Dead for Millennials?

7/29/2010

Is the American Dream Dead for Millennials? » New Deal 2.0

Is the American Dream Dead for Millennials?
Wednesday, 07/28/2010 - 2:43 pm by Bryce Covert | 3 Comments --> Wednesday, 07/28/2010 - 2:43 pm by Bryce Covert | 3 Comments
Will the upcoming generation still be able to attain the American Dream?

With sky-high unemployment numbers and a pick up in hiring nowhere in sight, it would be easy for a new generation of college students and graduates to despair. With job prospects difficult at best, will they left out of the American Dream?

At a Century Foundation presentation yesterday, four panelists told a group of college students the answer: an unequivocal “No.” Hilary Doe, National Director of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, was joined by Greg Anrig, Vice President of Policy and Programs at TCF, Teresa Ghilarducci, the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Chair of Economic Policy Analysis at the New School, and Barbara Kiviat, a Staff Writer at Time Magazine. They teamed up to debunk myths about US debt, the economy, and prospects for the next generation.

How is the American Dream staying alive? As Doe pointed out, while the recession has in many ways hurt millennials the most, the difficulties they have lived through — September 11th, Katrina, two wars, a recession — have made them extremely innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative. They are also highly attuned to the need for strong communities. Both of these qualities mean that they have quite a lot at stake when Obama’s Fiscal Commission threatens to cut programs such as Social Security. For this generation, being able to take risks with their careers is inextricably linked with a “robust” safety net, as Doe put it. And that net should look more like a trampoline that bounces people back to economic security, as a current Campus Network fellow recently told her.

But while the American Dream isn’t dead, it does need support. Anrig pointed out that rising deficit concerns risk sabotaging the economy at a time when government spending is necessary to tackle unemployment. Ghilarducci noted that the Federal budget promotes the American Dream through direct and indirect ways, with discretionary spending and the tax code. The “backdoor” spending through tax expenditures isn’t debated in Congress to see if they are efficient and effective (which they aren’t). Rather than focusing on cutting social programs, these tax expenditures are the real place to look for cost cutting. If the focus turns to deficit reduction through the withering of social programs, it may be an American Dream deferred.

But the change doesn’t all have to come from above. While millennials feel that the government has a role to play in lowering unemployment rates, they are, not surprisingly, distrustful of what it can accomplish. (Just take a look at how long Congress hemmed and hawed before extending unemployment benefits.) But Doe reminded the audience that actions at the local level can be a satisfying way to tackle the big debates over the deficit and unemployment. Movements such as neighborhood “stock markets”, Move Your Money, ending food deserts and getting more preventable health care into people’s homes tackle these problems. And they empower millennials on intimidating issues.

Meanwhile, Kiviat assured the audience that secular trends — such as the rising use of technology — will always trump business cycles, continuing the bright prospects for the American Dream. She did some research into the original American Dream, a term that was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931 (which makes no reference to housing). His was a vision of a country where you can make your life what you want — as long as you work hard for it. That dream, the panelists agreed, is still thriving.

Bryce Covert is Assistant Editor at New Deal 2.0.