Office of Public Relations
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-7750
Phone 513 745-3240
Fax 513 745-3070
www.xavier.edu/pr
Date:
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00AM - March 15, 2010
Contact:
Debora Del Valle
Director for Public Relations
513-745-3925 (o)
513-304-3250 (cell)
NEW POLL REVEALS:
AMERICAN DREAM IS IN TROUBLE...But there is more to the
story
Majority Think U.S. Is In Decline; African-Americans, Latinos & New
Immigrants Most Optimistic About Prospects; Women In Midwest Have
Bleakest Outlook
Xavier University’s Institute For Politics And The American Dream Releases
First Of Its Kind National Survey
Founder of Xavier University’s Institute for Politics and the American Dream, Michael Ford,
will be available for MEDIA interviews.
The American Dream is in trouble, according to the inaugural
State of the American Dream SurveyTM – a first-of-its-kind poll
from Xavier University’s (Cincinnati, OH) Institute for Politics
and the American Dream.
Learn more about the
American Dream at
www.xavier.edu/politics on
Facebook at Xavier Institute for
Politics and the American
Dream
or follow the Dream on Twitter
at XUAmericanDream
The survey reveals that people are losing faith in the American
Dream, with a majority believing that it is increasingly out of
reach and that America is in decline. Those defining the Dream
in terms of financial security are especially negative about it, particularly middle-aged women
living in the Midwest. Interestingly, African-Americans, Latinos and new immigrants have a
more positive view of the Dream.
“The American Dream is in trouble but it is being kept alive by new immigrants, Latinos,
and African-Americans. The hope for the most rests with those with the least," said Mike
Ford, the founder of Xavier’s Institute for Politics and the American Dream. “Even in
bad times, people have not lost confidence in themselves, but they have lost confidence in
our national institutions. No institution, political or otherwise, benefits from these new
realities."
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Office of Public Relations
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-7750
Phone 513 745-3240
Fax 513 745-3070
www.xavier.edu/pr
The survey was conducted by the public opinion research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz
& Associates and will be done on an annual basis. Its goal is to define what the American
Dream is and to whom, to measure America's confidence in itself and the future, and to
understand the aspirations and values likely to direct current and future economic, political and
cultural decisions. The survey can be accessed at www.xavier.edu/politics.
From February 14-21, 2010, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) conducted a
nationwide poll of 1022 respondents 18 years of age and older, reflective of the national
population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/3.1% at the 95 percent
confidence level. The margin of sampling error for subgroups within the sample will be higher.
Key Findings Include:
• Attaining The Dream Is Harder For This Generation Than Previous Ones. Sixty
percent of respondents believe that it has become harder to reach the American Dream
than it was for their parents’ generation; only one-third feel that it is easier. And an even
greater majority -- 68% -- say that it will be harder still for their children to reach the
Dream with a stunning 45% believing it will be much harder;
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•
Majority Believe America Is In Decline. A majority think America is now in decline
(58% compared to 32% who think the U.S. is on the rise) and a narrow majority who
now believes, after the end of the so-called “American Century” and victory in the Cold
War, that the world is looking elsewhere in terms of future success or direction;
•
Outlook Is Bleak For Those Defining The Dream As Financial Security. The most
negative assessments of the Dream come from those defining it in terms of financial
security especially among white women living in the Midwest, particularly those 40 to
64 years old. Those using the other common definitions of the Dream -- opportunity,
freedom and family -- have a more mixed view but one that is still largely negative.
•
The Industrial Midwest Was The Most Pessimistic Of Any Region In The Country
In Terms Of How Much Control Respondents Felt They Had Over Their Own
Destiny. A bare majority of respondents felt they had more control over their destiny
than people did in the past, while over a third disagreed. By way of comparison, in most
other regions people felt they had more control over their destiny than in the past by a
two-to-one ratio. Respondents in the industrial Midwest were most likely to associate
the American Dream with jobs and other opportunities.
•
Not All The News Is Bad: Individuals Are Optimistic About Their Particular
Prospects Even If Their “Macro” View Is Negative. While the general view of the
Dream is negative, most believe hard work will lead to its achievement; and two-thirds
Office of Public Relations
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-7750
Phone 513 745-3240
Fax 513 745-3070
www.xavier.edu/pr
are still at least fairly confident that they will reach the Dream even as they rate its
condition mediocre or poor.
•
New Immigrants, African-Americans and Latinos More Optimistic About Dream.
African-Americans, Latinos and 1st or 2nd generation immigrants view the Dream more
positively on nearly every measure than do white Americans. Put differently, the part of
society that is still by and large worse off in terms of social or economic measurements
is also the same group that is most positive about the American Dream.
•
African-Americans Were Only Group In Poll That Think Dream Is Getting Easier
To Achieve. African-Americans are, in fact, the only key demographic group in our
sample where a majority believes that reaching the Dream is easier now than it was for
their parents, and over forty percent believe it will be easier for their children to reach
than it has been for themselves.
About Xavier University’s Institute for Politics and the American Dream
The Xavier Institute for Politics and the American Dream aims to provide leadership in national
discussions of politics and public policy in an academic setting. The Institute also serves as a
center for researching crucial matters of public policy and governance, and disseminating its
findings to the public. To learn more visit www.xavier.edu/politics.
The mission of the Institute is to nurture the political imagination of our students and prepare
them to lead in our newly developing world. The guiding principle of the Institute is classical
and yet very American. It is to operate — as all politics in free societies should — within the
context of the greater good. To that end, the Institute will be aggressively non-partisan, tolerant
and encouraging to all thoughtful opinion and the rigorous pursuit of it.
-30Xavier University is a private university located in Cincinnati, Ohio, providing a liberal arts education in the
Jesuit, Catholic tradition. Founded in 1831, the University is the sixth-oldest Catholic university in the nation.
U.S. News & World Report ranks it No.3 among master’s-level universities in the Midwest, and The Princeton
Review names it as one of the “Best 371 Colleges in America.”
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