American Dream Dying The Changing Economic Lot of the Least Advantaged

Using recent polling results, this book identifies the core economic components of the American Dream standard of living, financial security, and upward mobility. The authors document the trend in each of these components over the last 30 years, using figures (trend lines and bar charts) based upon the best available data. Collectively, this evidence has alarming implications for the economic fate of those at the bottom of the nation's income distribution. For that group, as the authors show, the American Dream is dying.

Peter Tobin is a Ph.D. candidate in engineering and applied science at Yale University.