Rollout of the August 2008 American Dream Survey. From left: Anna Burger, Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners, Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute
For more than two years now, we at Change to Win have been conducting the American Dream Project — an ongoing study of how working people see the American Dream, and whether they think it is getting more or less reachable by themselves and their children.
The trends have not been encouraging. Every time we have investigated this question, we have found that working people feel the Dream slipping even further out of reach.
This morning, we released the results of our latest survey on this subject — and while they continue to show working people feel that we’ve gotten on the wrong track, they also offer hope for ways we can restore the American Dream for everybody.
So what’s the state of the American Dream? Eight in ten of the working Americans we surveyed felt that it is becoming harder these days to achieve it. 75% of respondents believe it will be even harder for the generation that follows them. This represents a significant increase in the number of working people who believe the future will be worse than today — when we studied this same question back in September of 2007, 67% felt that it would be harder for their children to achieve the American Dream than it has been for them. So the trends are not positive.
However, despite all this, working people understand that they have the power to turn things around — and they are overwhelmingly ready for leadership that will help them accomplish that.
One way they see they can turn things around is by joining a union. A majority of respondents agreed with the proposition that removing barriers to union organizing would help restore the American Dream, and 65% reported a favorable impression of the Employee Free Choice Act, the legislation that would do just that. (Despite massive blitzes of misleading ads paid for by corporate America in an attempt to discredit the Employee Free Choice Act, only 25% reported holding negative views of the bill. Not quite the return on their investment Big Business was expecting.)
So why don’t more people join together in unions? Our respondents had an clear answer to that too: 59% say they would be more inclined to join a union if laws were passed that would protect them from retaliation by their employer.
Working people are ready for new leadership, too. Our survey found that the American Dream Candidate, Senator Barack Obama, held a significant lead — nineteen percentage points — over his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain. Why such a lead, when the major media are reporting the race as neck-and-neck? Because our survey looked at all working people, rather than just limiting its sample to registered voters. So it’s clear that Obama has tapped into a broad base of support — and that it will be critical for progressives to get those supporters registered and out to the polls on Election Day.
What has sparked that wave of enthusiasm? It’s the sense that Obama will bring real, positive change to Americans’ economic lives. Significant majorities cite increasing access to quality, affordable health care and moving to a fairer trade regime as critical to the restoration of the American Dream. To the degree that Obama has brought that message to workers, they have responded — enthusiastically.
I encourage you to go check out the documents we released at the survey rollout today — you can download all the presentations that were given, as well as the complete survey results. If you look at those numbers, you can start to see the shape of a new America emerging from the mist — an America where work is honored again, and where working people are valued again.
This is the new America we have it within ourselves to make, if we only dare to try.
This web page is paid for by the Change to Win Committee for the American Dream and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.