Yes, I think if you watch American Graffiti or Happy Days you can see exactly what the mythical "American Middle Class" was supposed to mean. Every white dude can work 40 hours a week, and have a suburban house, a car, a wife, 2.5 children, money to spend on vacations, milk delivered to their front door, etc.
The Simpsons even made fun of this trope with their famous "Frank Grimes" episode. Grimes straight up tells Homer Simpson that he is a lucky dumbass and that "In any other country, you would be dead."
If you read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, he uses his GI Bill money to get a degree and then spend months upon months hitchhiking around America without a job. The American Dream was definitely a real thing for a specific segment of the American population for a certain period of time, but now we see even boring white dudes being excluded from the shrinking middle class. Of course, this increases radicalization.
Yes, I think if you watch American Graffiti or Happy Days you can see exactly what the mythical "American Middle Class" was supposed to mean. Every white dude can work 40 hours a week, and have a suburban house, a car, a wife, 2.5 children, money to spend on vacations, milk delivered to their front door, etc.
The Simpsons even made fun of this trope with their famous "Frank Grimes" episode. Grimes straight up tells Homer Simpson that he is a lucky dumbass and that "In any other country, you would be dead."
If you read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, he uses his GI Bill money to get a degree and then spend months upon months hitchhiking around America without a job. The American Dream was definitely a real thing for a specific segment of the American population for a certain period of time, but now we see even boring white dudes being excluded from the shrinking middle class. Of course, this increases radicalization.