Preview

Meritocracy: The American Dream

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
554 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Meritocracy: The American Dream
In my opinion, I disagree that meritocracy is the only requirement or way to achieve “The American Dream,” I see it as an important foundation build towards success, especially in the modern days. I believe that back in the days, meritocracy does work; working hard, earning a high education qualification, positive attitude, etc… However, in the modern era, I believe these are basic requirement to be able to even step on the road to success. I think there are more to add these days like, personality, relationships, and creativity. Personality is the most important out of all three of them. Personality includes how you treat people and things. Compared with previous generations, much more labor force is available now. People have much more …show more content…
I would like to take two major aspects to discuss: hard working and high education qualification. I’m from Hong Kong, where it is very competitive. Earning a bachelor’s degree is the least you should to do to be able to get a decent life, it is not guaranteed though. In HK, we call the degree an “admission ticket,” as in a ticket to enter the trip to success. Without a ticket, do not even think of getting a decent job. HK is a wealthy and developed place, also everyone in the new generation has some kind of a university degree. You might think neglecting the ability of the person is not fare, too early to judge, but as a company, they will would not take the risk to hire someone who is incapable. A college degree is like an insurance to them, but there are no promises, the degree is the only piece of evidence to show them. So, once you have the ticket and got into the field you want to work in, now is the time to show your ability. How? You may ask, work hard. In HK, if you are a hard worker you at least would not need to worry about surviving. Moreover, if you are a lazy worker, people can tell. If you work hard and produce quality work, there will be a higher chance to get noticed and give you hand in the trip to success. These are all basic concepts that older generations have been telling me the whole life. They got through, why should not I trust

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    While my American dream and Julia Alvarez’s dream in I Want to Be Miss America was to achieve the American dream by fitting in with our fellow peers. Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed shows that the American dream is for many others is to stay up financial with their fellow peers. These pieces all support that the the American dream is to keep up with your peers whether it’s appearance or financially.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The idea of the American dream began when immigrants migrated to America in hope to become successful, have financial stability, and receive rights they could not in their country. The American dream however was not only fancied by immigrants. Americans also had faith and wanted to pursue the American dream. The confidence in the American dream has diminished over time due to several economic developments and government policies that has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The American dream is basically dead due to serveral factors. In chapter 18, I came upon several essays that support my argument that the American dream has ended. I have realized that there are ample obstacles one has to endeavor to achieve…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I believe that the American Dream can be defined by having it all. Everyone in America wants to make it to the top. Everyone wants to be rich and famous. But the great power, fame, and success also comes with a dark side. To get to the top you must give part of yourself up. The American Dream may look desirable but the corruption that takes place to get there makes this dream more bad than good. By giving up a part of yourself to get to the top you can never be truly happy once you get there.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nowadays, many people leave their native country to move to American in search of freedom, fantastic education, and successful career. They want to achieve their personal goals in life; for example, political, better standard of living, good service healthcare, and equality of their life that they could not back in their homeland. As D'Souza stated in "Becoming American," In American, by contrast, you get to write the script of your own life." (344). In my opinion, I agree with D'Souza that we can achieve the American dream because of three reasons: Equality, better education, and better healthcare service.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many ways of going about and achieving The American Dream, Some may exploit the talents of others, inherit money, or work hard to the position or job they want to have. In the current state of the economy, some do not have time to pursue the ambitions of man. As we advance the time to teach the generation on how to progress becomes longer,…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (United States Declaration of Independence). In much the same way as the authors of the founding fathers, the American Dream can be defined simply as the pursuit and the achievement of happiness. Clarifications, like not needing to use underhanded means, are not necessary because it is readily apparent that these means do not provide happiness nor liberty. In other words, the American Dream is attainable through hard work, determination, and the fruits of honest labor, even though it is embodied negatively in literary contexts and positively in historical terms.…

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the mid-1800s education has been a very important factor in living a successful and happy life. Education has become an essential part to getting jobs and expanding knowledge. Education theory is the theory of the purpose, application and interpretation of education and learning (ucdoer). The theories Of Education depict the many different ways people learn, and how different schools and places handle the many ways of learning. Two of the many theories of learning are The Meritocratic Theory and The Democratic Theory, while discussing these theories writer Louis Menand in “Why We Have College” menand states the reasons why colleges exist and how certain people understand what college is for and how society separates different groups of…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The American Dream I believe that we have to be successful in order to be able to reach The American Dream. In the book, "The Great Gatsby" success is meant by having the biggest houses and nicest cars. Gatsby was very rich so he had a huge house and very fancy things. “Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn.” (The book The Great Gatsby page 50) Having success means everything. Now having success in our society is having a lot of money, having expensive cars and expensive things. Also living in a huge house. To be able to be successful now you have to go to school and go to college and get a good paying career. Back then they would just sell or transport illegal…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Achieving the American Dream requires a person to rise above the social class of which one was born with hard work, dedication, and ambition. But still many argue that the American Dream no longer provides for “the poor, the tired, and the huddle masses” the American Dream was never necessarily intended for that It allows and provides opportunity and optimism to the "poor" "tired" and "huddled masses" and to everyone for that matter. That is the American Dream, equal opportunity. Are there flaws to due to basic human tendency? Yes but that's no one personal fault. Not only Is American considered the “Land of Opportunity” but America…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every culture, race, and nation have their own unique myths, though all are untrue, they help explain why a certain group of people are what they are, or hope that they are. The American culture is filled with myths that we use to mythologize our ancestors by idealizing them, or endowing them with heroic qualities. We believe that we have inherited these mythical qualities because we too are Americans, and because we are striving to achieve some form of the traditional American Dream, which is defined as a perfectly content life. For we mythologize our ancestors with heroic qualities out of selfishness, believing that we too have inherited such qualities. Consequently, if we had inherited such qualities the traditional American dream would have become possible.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    American Dream Analysis

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When being asked the question “What is American dream”, different kinds of people would have various answers. Kids living in this country would say “Be a rap singer, or a professional athlete, and become famous and rich like a superstar rising within a single day”. College students would answer “successfully graduate from school and find a promising job”. Scientist’s version of American dream would be “create new technologies to make a better life”. Politicians would convey their dream of true freedom and ideal policies. Even people from different cultures would have different answers in mind: white people from east coast dream to get into a private college, and come out as lawyers and doctors; black people from south are more intended to develop…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Hard work, honesty, risk, and competition all must happen for the American Dream of wealth, marriage and family, home and prosperity, and social mobility to become reality." This is what we as Americans have ingrained in our heads as how to become happy. The American Dream is not a set rule of guidelines that guarantees success when attempted. It is not 2+2=4. There are numerous books in the world today "spilling the secret to success". They are however just a regurgitation of how one person became successful. To truly become successful, one needs the true American Dream, not some sweeping generalization that seems to have filled everyones minds. The True American Dream is much more simple, and still, does not have a guaranteed product…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The keystone to the American dream has always been the certainty that the next generation can do better economically than their parents. Americans pride themselves with the understanding that through hard work they can do better than those before them, but this may no longer be true. Climbing the economic and social ladder in the United States is becoming increasingly difficult and the middle class is shrinking. The decline of the middle class population in the United States can be attributed to an unfortunate cocktail of several factors. Among these factors are wage stagnation, tax policies more beneficial to the wealthy, the rise of the “gig economy,” the decline of unions, and globalization.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To me the American Dream is something that very few have managed to accomplish; people such as John D. Rockefeller, Jay-Z, and Chris Gardner. All these individuals coming from a tough background yet still being…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American dream is required through the accomplishment, wealth, reputation, and power. Any person can reach their American dream. All levels of accomplishment differ based on what one would like to reach. When so many people are poor, it is hard to look after the American dream for the reason that different people are “consumed by desires for status, material goods, and acceptance, Americans apparently had lost the sense of individuality, thrift, hard work, and craftsmanship that had characterized the nation” (Warshauer,…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays