Corruption, the ultimate abuse of power and money for the private gain of an individual and a sore spot in our countries history, present, and future (Transparency). Now let’s look at something that is viewed as the biggest upside of our country, the American dream. In 2016, 1.18 million legal immigrants came to America (Table 7), all for a different reason, but for one goal that is to achieve the dream. However, there is one problem, while corruption and the American dream have two very different connotations, they are extremely intertwined with each other. The stereotypical American Dream is having the most money, the fastest car, the biggest house. There is also another layer to this cliche dream, and that is power. With money comes power, and in the end, all people seem to really want is power. While to many, America is viewed as the escape and the place where everyone achieves the American dream, this is clearly not the case. The American dream should be viewed as a good thing, but in our times the greed for money and power has corrupted what every American strives to achieve.

When we look at the most successful people, the highest of the high, we think of how we want all that they have. The problem is, we do not think about how they got there. Many of these higher-ups have done things that can be easily classified as completely un-moral and often illegal to get where they are today. Sadly, the politician that run our country are great examples of this abusive use of power. For example, our current President Donald Trump is probably the most prominent example from our current day. As many might know, our current president was and still is, an extremely wealthy man. On top of that, he’s the president which is one of the most powerful positions in our country. When looking at this with no insight about the situation it is very easy for one to say that he has achieved the ultimate American dream. However, to get where he is right now he has broken more than a few laws and has affected so many people in so many awful ways, including absolutely demolishing their reputation and lives. The list is very, very long of bad things our President has done to get where he is, and what he has done with the power he now has. A few of these things include obstruction of justice, profiting from his presidency, collusion, attacking the free press and political opponents, and violating campaign laws and immigration rights (Trump’s 10). Every one of these things could be the cause of his impeachment, arrest, or any other punishment but yet not a single thing has been done to stop him. Another example of corruption in our country is the current opioid crisis. Many companies have been getting the punishment they deserve, but in the case of Johnson and Johnson, they barely got a slap on the wrist. Between 2007 and 2017, 4,653 people died in Oklahoma, the state where Johnson and Johnson was prosecuted, due too this opioid crisis(Associated Press). J&J was fined $572 million, but projections said that they had made over $20 billion off of the whole ordeal(Associated Press). In comparison, the 500 some odd million dollars is barely a punishment when they had made 40 times that much off of it. Millions of Americans strive to be just like these people, but in the end, what these people did to get where they are is completely un-moral and in many cases illegal.

The book Reforming Wall Street by Opposing Viewpoints is about how Wall Street is corrupt and how it needs to be fixed. While most of the information didn’t have to do with this topic, there was one quote that really stood out. “Those who do not know their opponent's arguments do not completely understand their own.” This passage strongly supports the idea of needing to be able to take down your opponent before you can succeed, which is the exact opposite of how the American dream should be achieved. With books like this being published, we as a country will never fix our problem with corruption. 

It seems as though at the root of all this corruption is one simple human emotion, greed. While it is clear that some people are more greedy than others, and some show it much more publically than others as well, greed is inside of everyone. Paul K. Piff of the University of California has done countless studies on greed and how greed is viewed differently from different social classes. One of his survey studies showed that as wealth goes up, a person’s level of empathy goes done and at the same time their feeling of entitlement and self-interest levels go up. This same study showed that the more wealthy a person got the more they viewed greed as an ethical and moral feeling, and not a negative one. Piff also did a study where he took people of all different social classes and gave them the equivalent of $10. They then were given the option to share this money with a stagner in the next room. Not surprisingly, those who made a salary of $20,000 or under yearly shared 44% more than those who made over $150,000 yearly. This goes to show that with the money and power, a.k.a. the achieved American dream, greed and selfishness came with it. The next study that Piff and his colleagues conducted was to see how people from different classes reacted when given the opportunity to cheat. It was found that wealthier people were three to four times for likely to cheat than those of the lower class. This also goes to show the people who are the ones making all the money probably didn’t make their money the most ethically or even legally. As Americans become more and more business-focused, and as economic equality decreases where more money is being spread out among fewer people, the availability of the American dream is becoming harder for all to achieve.

The way I have described the American dream so far makes it sound like it is not what it should be, and this is true. While corruption has already destroyed the way the dream is achieved, there is still hope to fix it. Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, once said “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” when describing what America was all about. Life, happiness, both things that play absolutely no role in the American dream today. Why on earth would we get rid of these two core parts of the foundation in which our country was founded on? How come it is not what we strive for today? I think that this quote should be the American dream, not having all the money and power you could possibly want. The whole point of America in the first place was to have a place where everyone could succeed. A place where you were not under the direct rule of a singular ruler such as a king. What the American dream should be about nowadays is all about living the best possible life you can, and being happy while doing it. This dream should not be achieved by abusing your power or putting others down only to get your self higher. It should be earned by your own hard work and perseverance. There are many ways we can fix the current problem with the dream. For instance, books like the one I talked about earlier should not even be put out the way they are. This is teaching kids that the only way to success is through cut-throat competition, but this is very far from the truth. I think that teaching kids at a young age the importance of being happy with what you have, but also through work you can achieve whatever you want is a very important part of fixing this so-called American dream that we have today. How we should succeed in achieving the American Dream is not knocking each other down, but rather build ourselves up.

The American dream should be viewed as a good thing, but in our times the greed for money and power has corrupted what every American strives to achieve. Looking back in history, our country had only been going down hill. If we don’t change the way the American dream is viewed and achieved soon, we will be living in a country where there is no more dream at all.

Works Cited

ASSOCIATED PRESS. "STAT." Oklahoma judge finds Johnson & Johnson fueled opioid crisis, 26 Aug. 2019, www.statnews.com/2019/08/26/oklahoma-judge-finds-johnson-johnson-fueled-opioid-crisis/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.

Haugen, David M., and Susan Musser. Reforming Wall Street. Detroit, Greenhaven Press, 2011.

"The science of greed | Paul K. Piff | TEDxMarin." YouTube, uploaded by Paul K. Piff, 7 Nov. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtU_nXV0i4E&t=171s. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.

"Table 7. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status By Type And Detailed Class Of Admission: Fiscal Year 2016." Homeland Security, 2016, www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2016/table7. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.

Transparency International. 2018, www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption#define. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.

"TRUMP'S 10 IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES." Need to Impeach, 2019, www.needtoimpeach.com/impeachable-offenses/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019.