by Firoze Hirjikaka

Created on: May 26, 2008

Why do so many Americans believe they have exclusive rights to "the dream"? Margaret Thatcher, a grocer's daughter, went on to become one of the longest serving and most successful Prime Ministers in Britain's history; but she never claimed to be living the British dream. When a lowly corporal named Napoleon Buonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor, no one said he was living the French dream. But almost every American especially if he is an immigrant who makes it big is said to be living the American dream.

So what, exactly, is the American dream; and is it more myth than reality? Most Americans I've come in contact with those who proudly boast of living in the greatest country on earth' vehemently insist that it is a reality. Is it? Right about now, the usual suspects must be sharpening their knives and getting ready to admonish me for inflicting my ignorant, foreigner' opinions on God's chosen people. I usually love a good scrap, but this time I am going to play it safe and stick to facts.

What could be more factual than the US Census and Bureau of Statistics? Yes, most of it is pretty boring, but it does throw up some revealing insights. The US Constitution may declare that all men are created equal, but very few Americans end up that way. Statistics show that the richest one percent of Americans own 38 percent of the nation's wealth. That leaves the remaining 99 percent with less than two-thirds of the pie. And the gap is growing wider. According to Fortune magazine, in 1970, the average annual salary of the top one hundred CEOs was 39 times the pay of an ordinary worker. By 1999, it had risen to 1000 times the pay of ordinary workers. The Congressional Budget Office reports that, between 1979 and 1997, the post-tax income of the top one percent of Americans rose by 157 percent, while the income of those in the middle-income range rose by only 5 percent. The poorest 20 percent of the population actually saw their real incomes decline.

The United States is generally acknowledged as the wealthiest country in the country in the world. One would assume, therefore, that there was more than enough money to go around. So why is it that the proportion of the adult population living in relative poverty is almost 20 percent, whereas it is only 8 percent in France, Germany and Italy? If one considers children, the comparison is even more horrifying. Fully one quarter of American kids live in relative poverty, compared with one tenth in the major countries of Western Europe.

Some

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