45% of Americans “don’t believe in the American Dream…it’s a thing of the past.” What happened?

A recent study has revealed that Americans’ trust in their society is dwindling, with only 36% believing in the so-called ‘American Dream’—the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work.

On the 24th (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this based on a joint survey conducted with the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC).

WSJ and NORC conducted a poll from the 19th to the 24th of last month among 1,163 registered American voters. The most common response, at 45%, was that the ‘American Dream’ existed in the past, but not in the present.

Only 36% of respondents believe that the ‘American Dream’ is still valid today, a 17-point drop from 53% in 2012. Meanwhile, the negative response that ‘the American Dream has never been a reality in American society’ increased to 18% in this survey, a significant rise from single digits in the mid-2010s.

Furthermore, 50% of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘the economic and political systems in the U.S. are working against people like me.’ Only 39% disagreed with this statement.

In March, WSJ and NORC also conducted a survey among 1,010 Americans asking whether they were confident that ‘the lives of the next generation will be better than ours.’ A staggering 78% of respondents gave a negative answer. The WSJ noted, “This survey started in 1990, and this is the highest percentage of negative responses we’ve ever received.”

In response to these findings, Jennifer Benz, the deputy director of NORC, commented, “There seems to be a spread of pessimism in society.” She added, “Even if gas prices drop a little or there is minor economic progress, it seems unable to appease people’s fundamental dissatisfaction.”

However, the survey also revealed that perceptions of the overall U.S. economy are improving. When asked to evaluate the U.S. economy, 35% of respondents gave positive responses such as ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’ While negative perceptions (65%) still dominate, this is a significant increase from the 20% who gave positive responses in a similar survey conducted in March.

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