Invest in Kids: Restoring the American Dream
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The idea of the American dream -- the idea that the opportunity for achieving one's hopes and dreams along with successful upward mobility is available to each successive generation regardless of circumstances of birth or zip code is a concept deeply help by the American people. According to James Truslow Adams:
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. . .regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
However, today the American dream is in crisis. According to a recent nationwide poll by American Viewpoint, by overwhelming margins, American voters believe that the lives of children have gotten worse rather than better over the past decade (57-13 percent). Americans are also not confident that the lives of the next generation will be better off (67-26 percent). This sense of pessimism about the next generation is strong across all gender, income, racial and political lines. In fact, Republicans are the least confident about the future of children (80-18 percent).
With child poverty having increased in 49 of the 50 states in the country between 2007 and 2012, we are a nation where over 1 in 5 children (21.8 percent) now live in poverty. The high rate of child poverty is much higher than the poverty rate of adults aged 18-64 (13.7 percent) and senior citizens (9.1 percent). As a result, today's child poverty rate is almost as high as it was in 1963 and is a stunning 70 percent higher