Merica'

1. How would you describe the "American Dream"?
1. The "American Dream" to me is having the opportunity and ability to work hard to achieve personal success. In addition, a foreign perspective may view the American Dream as freedom, religious freedom, freedom of speech an element of American culture that draws many people to America, as well as equality, and democracy. My current "American Dream" would be to go to college and finish my degree to the fullest, and pay as little as possible. The price of everything has gone up since my parent's days. My mother's "American Dream" was to get out of her small town Georgia life. Now, she sees all of her kin and the way their lives "are all crazy", not like our undramatic city life in Raleigh. There's no cell service, no WiFi they're all disconnected from the world and deep in everyone else's business.
2. What is your definition of wealth?
1. Wealth, I would like to think, is the accumulation and possession of things that have intrinsic value, versus marketable value. I perceive one thing as being very valuable to me, whereas another person may only see it as its price. However, now that the cost of living is so high in America, I find that my purpose behind college, my "American Dream" is for the accumulation of money, wealth. I did not wake up one day and think I want to be in college for a third, maybe even a half of my life. I go through college just to pay off college...to pay for shelter, safety...the basic needs to survive my whole life in an expensive world.
3. What are Americans' attitudes toward wealth and poverty?
1. Americans want to be successful. Most people define success as the accumulation of large amounts of money to supply the needs, as well as, the wants of their lives, to live comfortably. Wealthy people have lots of money, therefore most Americans idolize them because of their success. Americans do not want to live in extreme poverty because there is the opportunity of a higher quality of life. Most think Americans are lavishly entitled and live a comfortable way of life.
4. What is your attitude toward wealth and poverty?
1. I think that you want to achieve an amount of wealth to live comfortably, provide for children, supply my retirement. I think being wealthy is having a lot of something; whereas being rich deals a lot more with money. I would love to be wealthy rather than in poverty. Poverty has a lot of aspects like social, political, and economical. I wish that poverty did not exist, that everyone could have equal opportunity, to achieve their own "American Dream".