Sharing Two Narratives: The American Dream and There is Enough for Everyone to Thrive

For this project, I created two original drawings illustrating the two narratives, The American Dream and There is Enough for Everyone to Thrive. I posted them on my Instagram, which has 467,000 followers, with the following questions to encourage conversation.

“American Dream”

• Do you believe in the American Dream?
• Is it still a thing that people aspire to?
• If so, is it possible to create more ways to reach the American Dream so that every person and every family prospers, now and for generations to come?
• How do we do that?

“There is Enough for Everyone to Thrive”

• Do you think it is possible to have an economy where everyone (individuals and communities) prospers?
• Is shared prosperity possible? What do you think? And what would have to change for that to happen?

Audience comments

• Responses to ”The American Dream narrative were overall negative. Even though I asked people to imagine what the American Dream could be, most people focused on its unfair roots and legacy. Even for those who tried to imagine a world in which the American Dream could work under certain conditions, they didn’t see a world in which social support and decency prevail.
• By contrast, the “Together” narrative received entirely positive responses. People feet excited about the notion of togetherness and there being enough for everyone, even if it feels idealistic. In contrast to the American Dream, there is no negative history with this notion, and, for that reason, perhaps it feels radical and exciting.