M. R. Rank, R. A. Hirschl, & K. A. Foster, Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes

Abstract

Rank, a nationally known professor of social welfare at Washington University in St. Louis, is joined by Hirschl, professor of sociology at Cornell University, and Foster, an assistant professor of social work at the University of South Carolina. Together they synthesize expertise in inequality, poverty, social class differentiation, and social justice issues. Combining new statistical analysis of over 40 years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) with focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a variety of nationally representative surveys, Rank, Hirschl, and Foster attempt to understand the contemporary meaning of the American Dream, the viability of various pathways to achieve the American Dream, and the continuing relevance of the American Dream. What they have produced is a compellingly persuasive book that has been carefully constructed to be palatable to a broad array of political ideologies and viewpoints. At its heart, this book is complex statistical analysis, but the authors have woven in first person accounts in a way that significantly increases the accessibility of their message. With fewer than 50 endnotes, the casual reader is not overwhelmed with academic minutia, yet scholars will be pleased with the two appendices describing the data sources and providing 11 additional pages of tables. After a short introduction that describes the research approaches and major themes of the book, the first section of the book focuses on what the American Dream means today. This section of the book relies heavily, but not exclusively, on the triangulation of findings from nine focus groups, 75 in-depth interviews, and a few national opinion surveys. These findings confirm that the American Dream means three things: (a) freedom to pursue individual life goals; (b) confidence that hard work will lead to economic security; and (c) the expectation that things will be better in the future for oneself and one’s children. It is these three—autonomy, security, and optimism—that have forged the American character and comprise the American Dream. In chapter two, the authors pause for four brief pages to summarize their first bit of PSID data that calculated the average percentage of Americans likely to access welfare benefits, fall into poverty, and become unemployed in any given year. Combined these three factors show that 79 % of Americans can expect to have at least 1 year of economic insecurity between the ages of 25 and 60; almost 50 % will have three such years; and slightly more than 50 % will have two consecutive years of economic insecurity. ‘‘During any 10 year period, approximately half of Americans will experience at least 1 year of economic insecurity’’ (p. 38). No wonder national surveys suggest that economic security is more important to most Americans than income mobility. The second section of the book contains four chapters assessing the pathways that are trod in pursuit of the American Dream. Chapter five documents the changing landscape of opportunities in America. In the 1960s, General Motors was the largest employer; today it is Walmart. The shift from manufacturing to service jobs has significantly changed the labor market and has resulted in higher levels of economic risk. Grouping PSID data into two age cohorts suggested that economic insecurity was higher for every age of worker in 1988–2008 when compared with the economic insecurity in 1968–1988. Since 1968, the bottom four quintiles of households have had a & Peter A. Kindle peter.kindle@usd.edu; http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Nfm__ ZcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works