Does the American Dream Have an Expiration Date?

For generations, the American Dream was a promise.

Work hard, and you’ll make it.
Sacrifice, and it will pay off.
Come here with nothing, and you can build a future.

But what happens when the dream feels harder to reach than promised?

When wages don’t keep up with the cost of living.
When housing is out of reach, even with a good job.
When an education leaves you drowning in debt.
When a medical bill can erase years of savings overnight.
When the ladder that once led to success now feels like a treadmill, running faster and faster but going nowhere.

Americans and immigrants alike built their lives around this dream, believing in it so deeply that they were willing to trade everything they knew for it.

But what happens when the dream starts slipping out of reach—not just for newcomers, but for those who have been here all along?

Does the American Dream still exist?

Or is it something we now have to fight for?