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The United States of America, often called the Land of Opportunity, has long prided itself on offering a successful life to those determined enough to work for it. Sadly, this paradigm seems to be slipping further and further out of the reach of many Americans, particularly the lowest earners in society.

After World War II, in the wake of the country's post-war economic boom and extensive government investment in the aerospace and technology sectors, America's rising star seemed as though it would shine brightly forever. Incomes rose faster than the costs of living, corporations were still loyal to employees and parents could reasonably expect their children to do better financially than they had done.

The oil embargo of 1973, OPEC's punishing response to US support for Israel after the failure of Arab military aggression against the Israelis in the Yom Kippur War (the embargo would eventually backfire on OPEC nations, forcing Western countries to develop non-OPEC oil fields and diminishing OPEC's market share) was an ominous warning sign of the dangers of dependence on foreign energy. De-regulation, costly foreign policy misadventures and the globalization of markets and corporations all converged to chip away at the hard won gains of the middle class. Americans lost pensions, benefits, affordable health care and reasonably priced higher education at an alarming rate while the nation's manufacturing base practically disappeared altogether. In the 1980's, for the first time since the country was founded, the up and coming generation could no longer expect to fare better, or in many cases even as well, as their parents had.

The service sector, which buoyed the American economy for a time after the collapse of manufacturing, soon became the next target of American boardrooms. Global communications enabled the outsourcing of white-collar jobs while an uncontrolled supply of illegal laborers undercut the wage base of many formerly well paying blue collar jobs. The American middle class, both upper and lower, continued to lose ground.

Recently published research by the Brookings Institution, a Washington based think tank, found that downward mobility is now as common in the US (one third of families) as upward mobility with the remaining third staying the same. This means that upward mobility is now available to a minority of the US population, and the majority of those who are experiencing upward mobility were born into the upper echelons of American society. The next generation is expected to fare even worse. More disturbingly, the same study showed that incomes for the top 20% of earners rose dramatically over the same period during which almost everyone else's failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

The US has seen an increase in poverty among the employed, a lessening of retirement benefits for the elderly and the prohibitive costs of health insurance and higher education leaving more and more Americans out of the equation. Despite its reputation as a nation where all things are possible if you simply work hard enough, the sad truth is that for an ever-widening margin of the American population, the American Dream is spiraling out of reach.

Learn more about this author, Ophelia Keith.
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