American Dream Delusion

It’s not called the American Dream for nothing

It's called the American dream for a reason.

isn't that the way the "American dream" works?

Classic American mentality of conflating basic human rights with luxury.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." --Steinbeck

Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. - John Steinbeck (disputed)Lots of otherwise reasonable people are willing to delude themselves for a shot at a windfall.

This just strikes me as something Americans tell themselves to justify their living situation

I’ve heard it described as “Americans think of themselves as temporary poor future billionaires”. Not all Americans, but this is why you see so many simping for the rich even when its not in their own interests.

My intuition about this as someone who grew up in America and has traveled internationally quite a bit is that nowhere else on earth are the middle classes so convinced that one day they will be "millionaires" than here. This causes them to act against their own best interests.(This was observed by Engels long ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consciousness )

Let the poor American rest, they still think more money == best.