How the American Dream affected the Economy

Photo by Vlad Busuioc on Unsplash  

Without a doubt, most people living in the United States of America are familiar with the phrase, “the American Dream”. Since the time it was first coined during the Great Depression from a book by James Truslow Adams, who defined it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone”, it has grown to represent the ambitions that millions of American immigrants and their children hope to accomplish. With 46.2 million immigrants in the country in November 2021, America became the biggest destination for foreign-born individuals than anywhere else in the world. The goals of these people to achieve the happiness, financial prosperity, and other aspirations that they were promised in America not only helped the nation’s economy, but also reformed it.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 17% of the total civilian labor force were foreign-born in 2020. Additionally, 44% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children as of 2021; combined, these companies employed more than 13.9 million people worldwide. However, regardless of all of these statistics proving how immigrants are an essential part of the workforce, real strength in the US economy stems from how well it can react to the ever-evolving technology. 

Currently, America is known to be a global leader in technology innovation. However, this leadership is mostly due to the nation’s history of being a strong magnet for immigrants. A research study found that in the 91 companies they observed, immigrants were in positions of high status in product development or management in over 80% of them. Furthermore, the study revealed that billion-dollar startup companies founded by immigrants (such as Google, Yahoo, eBay, and Facebook) have created an average of more than 1,200 jobs each. In fact, another study conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also discovered that because many immigrants and their children are geographically mobile and, thus, are more able to help mitigate worker shortages, they made up more than 33% of the workforce in some industries. Needless to say, the U.S. would not have reached its position of global dominance nor would its economy have matured in this way without the millions of people immigrating there with the promise of opportunity and success in mind.

Yet, while the American dream may have once been fulfilled by getting hired at a corporation giant and then retiring after a couple of decades, a new definition has begun to spring among today’s generation. With the population of young adults beginning to prioritize progress rather than traditional ideals and preferring individual and accommodating work lifestyles rather than the typical 9am-5pm job, a new radical transformation in America’s economy may be spotted soon on the horizon.