Nick Soukup

American Dream Essay

10/07/16

Genes in the American Dream

The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and
richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement." These words were first spoken by James Truslow Adams in 1931. The
American Dream is a goal that America has strived to achieve for many years. It
explains the life Americans desire. However, the American Dream is fading away from
the U.S., and is more applicable in other countries due to the gap in wages and IQ
levels caused by economic social classes. An article explains, Donald Trump claimed
that the American dream is dead. This further supports how the American Dream is
almost unreachable at this point.
The enormous gap between the upper and lower class is preventing us from
reaching the American Dream. This problem is mainly caused by the wage gap between
the classes. Since there is such a large wage gap between the classes, living conditions
are far better for the upper class than the lower class, and a better life in general for
those in the upper class. This causes inequality and continues to widen the gap
between the two. Research finds that Americas upper-income families have a median
net worth that is nearly 70 times that of the countrys lower-income families, also the
widest wealth gap between these families in 30 years. Also, studies show that 90% of
the current wealth belongs to the upper classes. This shows how much more money

upper class people make than lower class, and further jeopardizes Americas ability to
achieve the American Dream.
In the U.S, there is a gap between the IQ levels of the high versus low
socioeconomic classes. People inherit their parents IQ gene and, being identical twins,
they would have the same IQ. When twins were separated at birth and one grew up as
a lower class, and one as a higher class, the higher class twins IQ surpassed far above
the lower class twins IQ. Scientists strove to prove this; Researchers conducted an
experiment measuring IQ levels between twins and the results shows 61% of twins at
the 95% for SES, or social economic status, inherited the parents IQ genes, but 24% of
twins at the 5th percentile inherited the parents IQ gene. This experiment proved that
the IQ levels that were once the same changed because of the social economic
classes. A lower standard of living influences the IQ of one in the lower class.
Other countries have a higher standard living conditions and access to
education, which allows peoples IQ to be higher in the country. In the IQ experiment
previously mentioned, for studies conducted in Western Europe or Australia, heritability
was statistically no different across levels of SES. The article explains that countries
like Sweden, Australia, and Germany create living conditions that facilitate genetic
influences on intellectual functioning. This supports that the living conditions influence
ones IQ, causing the gap between the classes to become greater. Although it is called
the American Dream, this dream is more present in countries in western Europe and
Australia rather than the U.S.
The American Dream is goal that America has strived to attain for countless
years, however, we are still unable to reach it due to the wage and IQ gap between the

higher class and the lower class. Other countries are in closer proximity to this goal than
the United States. This is because the gap between the social economic classes in the
other countries is considerably less than it is in America. The famous words created by
James Adams explaining a goal that America once had the ability to achieve is now
more distant that it has ever been, and our chances of ever reaching it is in jeopardy.

Bibliography:
Fry, Richard, and Rakesh Kochhar. "America's Wealth Gap between Middle-income and
Upper-income Families Is Widest on Record." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 17 Dec.
2014. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.
Hambrick, David Z. "Genes and the American Dream." Scientific American. N.p., 21
Mar. 2016. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.