What our country loses if the American dream dies

A recent Wall Street Journal-NORC poll contained some disturbing data about public attitudes toward the American dream.

Forty-six percent of respondents answered the American dream once was true but not anymore; 23 percent said it never was true. This 70 percent who think the American dream is dead is the highest in nearly 15 years of surveys. And that pessimism knew no demographic boundaries: Men and women, older and younger adults all believed the future was bleak.

Axios CEO Jim VandeHei writes that the lack of faith in the American dream is a “crisis far bigger than politics.”

One oft-cited reason is the economic pessimism that has gripped the country. The same Wall Street Journal-NORC poll that showed a dying American dream found 56 percent saying the nation’s economy was “poor,” 45