Comparing the Chinese Dream with the American Dream

Abstract

Comparison of the Chinese Dream with the American Dream reveals that the Chinese Dream has four main themes: national rejuvenation, common prosperity, democracy, and the people's happiness; whereas, the American Dream emphasizes personal liberty, individual success, and upward social and economic mobility. Investigation of the historical origins and development of the two dreams, conjoined with an account of their aims and purposes, shows that full realization of the Chinese Dream is achieved by successfully building socialism with Chinese characteristics; the American Dream, by contrast, serves as an ideological prop for a particularly aggressive, predatory, and imperialistic form of capitalism. Furthermore, a comparison of each dream in actual practice shows that the Chinese Dream of fully developed socialism has been more successful at promoting common prosperity and peaceful, sustainable development, while the American Dream of unbridled capitalism encourages unsustainable development, growing poverty and inequality, and imperialist wars. Finally, an enumeration of the fundamental differences between the Chinese and American Dreams concludes that the Chinese Dream is fundamentally benign, whereas the American Dream is basically malignant. In order for the American Dream to shed its harmful characteristics, it must reject its capitalist underpinnings and adopt socialism as its ultimate goal.