Robert Reich: The Myth of the Rugged Individual

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich debunks the myth of the self-made individual and explains what your life chances really depend on.

The Price Of The American Dream

Can President Trump keep his promise to make America Great Again? Four Corners meets the human face of America's working poor as they struggle to feed their families. Can President Trump keep his promise to make America Great Again? Four Corners meets the human face of America's working poor as they struggle to feed their families. The Price of the American Dream, from French film-maker Hélène Eckmann.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump's Budget Takes a Sledgehammer to What Remains of the American Dream

The Trump administration unveiled its $4.1 trillion budget Tuesday. The plan includes massive cuts to social programs, while calling for historic increases in military spending. The budget proposes slashing $800 billion from Medicaid, nearly $200 billion from nutritional assistance programs, such as food stamps and Meals on Wheels, and more than $72 billion from disability benefits. The plan would also completely eliminate some student loan programs. It would ban undocumented immigrants from receiving support through some programs for families with children, including the child care tax credit. The budget also calls for an historic 10 percent increase in military spending and another $2.6 billion to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, including $1.6 billion to build Trump’s border wall. For more, we speak with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

20/20 Diane Saywer My Reality: A Hidden America

The End of the American Dream: The Death of the Middle Class

The End Of The American Dream (2011): With around 120,000 people declared bankrupt each month, many of the squeezed middle-class see the American dream slipping away.

Joseph Stiglitz on the Loss of the American Dream, Trickle Down Economics and TTIP

An Interview with Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz in 2015. The GED team’s, Uli Schoof sat down with Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz recently to get his views on inequality, inclusive growth and free trade. In the resulting interview, Professor Stiglitz shared his thoughts on the “American Dream”, multi-national trade agreements and the failure of “Trickle Down” economics while contrasting the European and North American response to the financial crisis.

CrossTalk: McDonaldization

Has the American dream come to an end? What does the recent McDonald's minimum wage guide say about the nature of labor in the US? And, is there a way to improve income disparity? CrossTalking with Austin Petersen and Eric Draitser.

Interview with Economist Joseph Stiglitz: 'The American Dream Has Become a Myth'
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The finance industry is to blame for the growing divide between the rich and poor in the United States, says Nobel Prize-winning economics professor Joseph Stiglitz. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he accuses the industry of preying on the poor and buying government policies that help them get richer.

At Columbia University, which is located just blocks from Harlem in Manhattan's West Side, wealth and poverty are closer together than they are in many places in New York City. This is where American economist and 2001 Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz works as a professor. The Gary, Indiana native has spent years examining social inequality. His first personal experience with the issue came when, as a young boy, he asked why his nanny wasn't caring for her own children. Later, as the World Bank's chief economist, he studied the phenomenon on a global level. In June, he published a book on the topic entitled "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future," which has just been released in German as well. In a SPIEGEL interview, Stiglitz discusses how wealth disparity is dividing America and how Europe can best overcome the euro crisis. » | Interview conducted by Alexander Jung and Thomas Schulz | Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Inside Story: Is the American Dream Fading?
With more people living on the breadline in the United states, we ask how can prosperity be restored for the Americans. Inside Story US2012 discusses with guests: Tavis Smiley, Barbara Ehrenreich and Cornel West.

American Dream on Brink of Collapse? : Many parents no longer believe that their children will have better lives, more opportunities than they did

Jobless Millions Signal Death of the American Dream for Many
THE OBSERVER: Even the criminals have fallen on hard times in America's poorest city as the long-term unemployed struggle to keep a grasp on normality

Union members hold up "I want to work" placards as they join a protest of several thousand people demanding jobs outside City Hall in Los Angeles on August 13, 2010. Photograph: The Observer
Richard Gaines is one of the best-known faces on Camden's Haddon Avenue. It is a rough-and-tumble street, lined with cheap businesses and boarded-up houses, and is prey to drug gangs. Gaines, 50, runs a barbershop, a hair salon and a fitness business. He works hard and is committed to his community. But Haddon Avenue is not an easy place to make a living in the best of times. And these are far from the best of times.

Just how badly the great recession has struck this fragile New Jersey city, which is currently the poorest in America, was recently spelled out to Gaines. In happier times – whatever that might mean for a city as destitute as Camden – local businesses on Haddon Avenue could at least rely on a bit of trade from those who made their money on the street.

Young men bought flashy clothes and got sharp haircuts and always paid in cash. But no longer. The economy is now so bad in Camden that even the criminals are struggling and going short. "Even the guys who got money from illegal means really don't want to spend it," Gaines said.

Such a development, though, is just a snapshot of the deep problems still hitting the wider American economy. Growth rates are stuttering and a recovery is struggling to take hold. It may even now be showing signs of going backwards again, as countries such as Germany start to power forward. Joblessness has taken hold in America, with the numbers of long-term unemployed reaching levels not seen since the Depression of the 1930s. The figures are frightening and illustrate a society that remains in deep trouble.

The headline jobless figure of 9.5% is bad enough but does not begin to convey the problem as it fails to measure those who have stopped looking for work. Over the past three months alone more than a million Americans have fallen into that category: effectively giving up hope of finding a job and dropping out of the official statistics. Such cases now number some 5.9 million and their ranks are likely to grow as millions more find their jobless status becoming a permanent state of hopelessness. Surveys show that with each passing week on the dole their chances of finding a job get slimmer.

Though corporations, especially in the banking sector, are posting healthy profits, they are not hiring new workers. At the same time, government cuts are sweeping through city and state governments alike, threatening tens of thousands of jobs and slicing away at services once thought vital. Schools, street lighting, libraries, refuse collection, the police, fire services and public transport networks are all being scaled back. >>> Paul Harris | Sunday, August 15, 2010