“This country offers great opportunities. It provides a path to achieving what you want. But the American dream is realized little by little.”
A fruit vendor says the quiet part: the dream isn’t dead, it’s just slower and grubbier than the postcard version ever admitted. The Gallup number floating around, 69% still think they can get there, is doing a lot of load-bearing work for a country with stagnant wages and a housing market that laughs at first-time buyers. Nice timing on a 250th birthday story. Convenient that “little by little” is also how you’d describe a promise getting quietly downgraded.