The American Dream is a Fallacy: it's not your fault you are poor

The circumstances we are born into are a matter of chance, not choice. While a select few may manage to achieve the American Dream of upward social mobility, most of us never will. And if we do, it is generally only by one, MAYBE two, subcategories of socioeconomic status. This is not because we are not smart enough, or lack the work ethic to overcome the challenges. It is because capitalism requires financial suppression of the masses. What good would it do if EVERYONE had access to excessive wealth? What prize would there be to win? Money is power. And those with power do not relinquish it without a fight.

They will never tell you that we maintain a caste system in this country. They will tell you that everyone begins the race at the same starting line. If you didn’t win, that’s your own fault. You didn’t take advantage of the opportunities presented to you. You didn’t study hard enough. You partied too much. You didn’t put the hours in to make the money. They really want you to believe that YOU… the average American, likely born into a lower, to lower middle class family, had the SAME opportunities to advance in life as Elon Musk, the heir to an emerald mining fortune. So, let’s dissect that a bit because that doesn’t seem to add up.

When you are born into a lower-class family, you face a unique blend of challenges. There are times when your family does not know where they will get money for groceries or school supplies. Maybe your parents aren’t even sure how they will pay rent this month. You move around a lot because everywhere you land is too expensive to maintain. You likely do not wear name-brand attire, and if you do, it comes from Savers, Goodwill, or TJ Maxx. There is nothing wrong with this. But it matters because it immediately designates you to a specific social group in school. You likely are not friends with the doctors’ or lawyers’ kids. Your friends have the same struggles as you and this experience is your initiation into your lower caste.

It is likely that as part of this caste, the financial strain in your home leads to a higher chance of addiction or alcoholism. The stress of being poor is real. It keeps you up at night. Not knowing how you will pay rent this month or how you will buy a whole new wardrobe for your teenagers who are growing at alarming rates is enough to push you over the edge. It is pervasive. It makes you edgy and irritable. The emotional capacity to care about things like grades and education simply does not exist as it does for those who are financially stable. There is rarely extra money available for luxuries like extracurricular activities which are crucial for college applications. Lower caste parents are fucking exhausted just by their mere existence. Their kids are more likely to fall through the cracks because the parents do not have the supports they need to keep those cracks sealed. They did not choose this. They, too, were born into the struggle.

Contrast this with a middle-caste family. Most middle-caste families have money stashed away in savings and investments. They can likely get by for 6 months or more with no income at all. They’ve made enough with their college degree and gainful employment to put money away in retirement. They go on vacations. They live in nice homes in nice neighborhoods where all the other families have access to good lives. They can afford new clothes from new stores every season to keep their kids in style. They can buy the best school supplies and even pay for a tutor if their kids are falling behind. More importantly, because they are not bogged down with the crippling fear of impending homelessness, they have the mental and emotional capacity to notice when their children need assistance with their education.

Their kids are engaged in activities, probably one per season, which their parents can afford with little inconvenience. These activities not only keep their children busy and engaged in constructive interactions, they also expose their kids to a wider social network… other adults who can offer recommendations or a direct connection for higher paying jobs in the future. Furthermore, these activities look amazing on college applications. They increase the likelihood that these kids will get into good colleges where they will further expand their social network and find professors who will help them secure even better jobs. Again, these children did not do anything special to be awarded these opportunities. They were born into families that had financial privilege. Their parents did not bear the weight of poverty.

Certainly, there are lower income families who “make sacrifices” to ensure that their children have access to college and the extracurriculars that are crucial for that journey. But as a single mother scraping to get by, I can assure you there is only so much that can be done. I am that parent who shops at Savers, and even then, my child has 5 pairs of pants, a few sweatshirts, one pair of shoes and enough socks and underwear to get by. I cry often. I live in a constant state of financial fear. We sacrifice to live in the best school district in Minnesota where he is finally excelling. But we are, without a doubt, one of the poorest families here. And I AM highly educated. I have chased the opportunities I was told to chase to achieve the American Dream. And yet, as I write this article, I am calculating how much I can reasonably spend on groceries this week while still covering my bills. I did it. I did the things. And still, here I sit. Struggle bussing as I have my whole life. Stuck in the lower-middle class caste. The exact caste I was born into. Will I achieve ANY upward social mobility? I hope so. But I do not expect it to be astronomical. I may be able to achieve stability. I may be able to retire someday. That’s about as much as I hope for because I fully understand that this society was not designed for my success.

There are other factors reinforcing our caste system preventing social mobility in either direction. Consider financial assistance. The lower caste has little to no access to financial help. Our current poverty line is $15,650 for an individual person. That’s $1,304 a month. Before taxes. The cheapest available apartment listings in central Minnesota are running $700-$1,000. Once your cell phone bill (and yes, you must have a cell phone in today’s world), utilities (have you seen your electric bill? Mine was $330 in August), and car insurance are paid, you have nothing left over. In fact, it is unlikely you were able to cover all these costs with your income.

If you make over $15,650, you don’t qualify for assistance, and even if you DO qualify, there is always a long waiting list for things like housing and childcare. And because you almost certainly grew up in a lower income household, your family does not have the funds or credit to help you out if you need it. You’re also unlikely to have access to your own credit to help cover the costs of staying alive and employed.

On the other hand, when you belong to the middle caste, most of your social network is also of that caste. If you have a bad month, need help with rent or food, your car breaks down, or have any other expense, you have a plethora of people you can turn to. You likely have decent credit and at least one credit card on hand to absorb a major unexpected cost. If not, your family certainly does. Most middle caste families expect to help cover the costs of living for their children at some point or another because this was how they were able to get a leg up as they were branching out on their own years ago.

This access (or lack thereof) to financial resources beyond one’s own earning capacity plays a major role in a person’s ability to build a better life for themselves.

As mentioned earlier, one’s social network also makes a difference. We’ve already established that our circles of friends are established early on. It is unlikely that friendships will develop across drastically different income levels. This is because these families live completely different lifestyles. We naturally gravitate towards those with whom we share the same interests. If your family has the funds to cover extracurricular activities, your friends will likely also be involved in those activities. If your family does not, you probably spend your time after school with other kids who are not in activities. Those involved in extracurriculars are likely to follow a similar path towards college and advancement, whereas those without access to extracurriculars will not be presented with the same connections that will lead them in that direction. This is especially true for kids who have access to activities that are NOT tied to schools. Kids who are involved in private music lessons or club sports gain access to an additional network of instructors, coaches and other parents who greatly contribute to the future success of the children they meet. Children born into the lower castes never have access to these opportunities.

It should be pretty easy to see how our conditions are not equal. It should be pretty easy to see how the lower castes are locked into their predicament from the moment they’re born while the middle caste has the freedom and opportunity to establish a commendable life for themselves. Neither party asked to land where they did. It was the luck of the draw reinforced by a system that fails to adequately support those at the bottom to ensure they have access to a better life.

If the system supported this, it would care about providing assistance that actually provided relief from poverty, not simply a process that forces folks to remain in destitute conditions in order to receive the bare minimum. It would offer adequate housing and food assistance to those beyond the poverty line so they could work towards a better job and put a little money away in savings to support a future where they could actually survive WITHOUT the system. It would effectively control things like medical costs and utilities. It would offer emergency funding to folks in the lower middle caste who have unexpected emergencies like outrageous car repairs to ensure they can keep their jobs and not lose their homes because they couldn’t get to work. It would recognize that, no, actually, we are NOT equal. No, we do NOT all begin at the same starting line. No, it is NOT an individual failing to be poor your whole life. Yes, the cards ARE stacked against you. And no, just because one in a million makes it out does not mean social mobility is accessible to everyone.

Capitalism does not care that you are poor. It does not care about your access to a better life. It cares that those at the top can continue to compete for the most wealth possible. It cares about consolidating power in the hands of those who can pay for it. This is its sole goal. Keep in mind that I have merely compared the lower castes to the middle castes here. Imagine how much of a leg up those trust fund babies have over all of us. Their international travels. Their live-in nannies. Their private prep schools that all but guarantee their entrance into the Ivy League… which guarantee them the highest, most powerful jobs in our nation. Wealth is generational. I can attest from my time in law school that it is different for someone who struggles their way into higher status than it is for someone who was born into the clan and knows all the tricks of the trade. They know the language. They know the expectations. They know how to show up to the table. They’ve done it their whole lives. Even at the top, they have their own hierarchy. And outsiders are not welcome.

This is how they maintain power in the hands of those who will uphold the capitalist structure of the system. This is how they ensure the rest of us remain inhibited. They do not want the lower castes to have equal opportunities to higher status. They do not want you to better your life. For if you gain access to power, you may change the system to help others like YOU, and that would mean less wealth and power for THEM. The American Dream is a fucking fallacy designed to convince YOU to participate in your own economic oppression. That includes you, middle caste. I hope you are preparing. I hope you are ready for what is to come. Because THIS system’s goal is to suffocate you out of your current standing and into the lower castes with the rest of us. We already know how to survive here. You all have much to learn.