All I Want for Christmas is the American Dream
Writing this Substack post I’m living my own American Dream. I got into the economics profession and later founded a nonprofit institute focused on lifting barriers to human flourishing precisely because that has always been one of my dreams. My goal is not just to remove barriers so that more people can escape poverty but to remove barriers so that more people can have meaningful upward mobility, live to their fullest human potential, and find more human flourishing for themselves and those around them. Thinking about how some people live in poverty and might never be able to pursue their dreams and discover their fullest human potential is what keeps me up at night.
And that is the same journey that I am on personally: trying to improve myself every day, reach my own fullest potential, and help others achieve theirs. I’m trying to rekindle the American Dream in others by living it out myself. I’m not always successful in the endeavor. The road hasn’t been easy, as I’ve recorded elsewhere, and it will continue to be challenging, but that is precisely why the American Dream is more about the journey and not just the destination; it’s about overcoming challenges and persevering despite the odds. People can learn a lot about themselves and what they’re trying to manifest in their American Dreams during that journey, and that is a big part of what makes it worthwhile and such an amazing national ethos. The American Dream is not only a vision statement for individuals but for the country as a whole.
But this post is not about my own American Dream as much as me wishing that more people would set out to pursue their own American Dreams this Christmas season—and why that would be a good thing for people in the United States and, in some ways, even around the world.
In our own surveys in the United States, we see that people are optimistic about the American Dream, not only because they have achieved their dreams already, but also because many say that they’re on their way to achieving it. They’re still on that journey and are hopeful that they will achieve it.
In that sense, the American Dream is a vision and mission that people might have for their own lives or just for a period of their lives as people can be pursuing multiple dreams simultaneously or one after the other. What is important about that is that having an American Dream is what gives people meaning and purpose. It gives people a goal to aim for and inspires them to dream big and achieve their fullest human potential. And when people are hopeful, they can inspire or positively “infect” others with that hope, which research has shown fosters individual and societal benefits.
And that is precisely what we need to counter the nihilism, doomerism, and low-agency views that we see playing out in our society today. At a time when many people find themselves in a crisis of meaning, when there are more mental issues among our population, at a time when more people seem to be holding pessimistic views about the future or have less hope in society—even though they’re hopeful about their own futures—setting out to live your American Dream and having a hopeful perspective of your own future and that of society, seems almost subversive.
During this season there are many stories about people believing in something more than themselves, believing that they can do great things, and setting out to do them. These often come in the form of feel-good stories like recent examples of Netflix movies, which are just reminiscent of Hallmark movies that we’re used to watching this season. And they’re also some of the latest movies that are currently in theaters like Red One, where Santa’s bodyguard and a non-Christmas-believer thief set out to save Santa and Christmas. Another movie that was just recommended to me in this category, by my friend Dara Ekanger, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which I’m now eager to watch. But we will also hear about personal feel-good stories from people across the Christmas dinner table sharing their goals and aspirations with their friends and families.
At the end of the day, to rekindle the American Dream or keep it alive and well, it needs to be acted on by people across the country. And when more people dream big and act on their dreams, it refuels the American Dream across our dinner tables at Christmas and sets us up for success in the new year. We need to celebrate people’s American Dreams, search for meaning and a hopeful view of the future as key ingredients for flourishing lives. That would be my favorite Christmas miracle—that more people would feel empowered to, at the very least, just dream big and set out to pursue their American Dream by thinking about what their American Dream is during this Christmas season. As Walt Disney would say that: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
It will not happen overnight, but just getting started with a clear vision needs to be the first step. When more people across the country do it, that can help us come together as a country as the dream provides a unifying vision. It can help reduce mental health issues as most pursue dreams that go beyond themselves, making the effort to live better lives with their friends, family, and even their community. In some cases, pursuing one’s American Dream could be about building a new company that can employ others, building a new initiative that can address a need in your local community, or just having a more hopeful perspective of the future that can set us up for success in addressing any challenge we face.
So again, all I want for Christmas is the American Dream, yes for myself, but also for everyone else in the United States. I’ve set to live out my own, but would you also set to live out your own or help others dream big and start their journey too? I’m sure helping people live their dreams is what Santa enjoys doing the most during this season. And it might just be what your own 5-year-old self always wanted when you were writing letters to him. To close again with Walt Disney: “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”