Josh Sanders, Founder of Shiloh Street
Each person will have a slightly different answer to the question of, “What is the American dream”, right?
Your answer will depend on where you came from and where you want to go.
But no matter whom you ask, you’ll always hear something about buying real estate and gaining wealth as part of their answer.
It’s just how American culture has been programmed to answer, right?
There’s no doubt that buying a home and having the right to own real estate is a key privilege and benefit of living in America. Sadly, the same can’t be said for other parts of the world.
Whether or not a particular country’s government controls and/or possesses all the real estate is one thing. But even if the citizens have an opportunity to buy a home or land, many countries are so poor and economically impoverished that the people don’t have a realistic chance to do it. But it’s possible in America, which is part of what makes this country so special.
More than Money?
Aside from the financial benefits, there’s something more about owning your own home or land. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment and confidence. It’s a goal that most people born in America and who come to America try to reach, right?
While your emotions may say something different, owning a home or a piece of real estate doesn’t define who you are or what you’re worth (well, maybe it does financially but who cares about that 
). The same could be said for how much wealth you have in general but since this is a real estate website, we’ll focus on that in particular.
Some people spend their lives trying to gain as much wealth and power as they can to fulfill an absence of self-worth or meaning. Other folks attempt to own real estate and attain wealth to benefit their families and others.
Both types of people would answer the question of, “What is the American dream?” with something about owning their own home or real estate. But the mindsets and motivations will be very different for both groups of people.
Love of Money & Real Estate
It’s been said that ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil’ and I believe that’s absolutely true. That statement doesn’t mean it’s bad to gain money and wealth but it’s when you have a ‘love’ for it that things can go bad.
When one person comes to America in hopes of a better life for themselves and their family with the dream of owning real estate or buying a house, that’s a fantastic goal. That kind of motivation and hope will benefit others rather than serving selfish greed.
But when someone comes to this country in hopes of a better life for only themselves by gaining as much material wealth as possible, who does that benefit? What’s the end result? What good does that spread in the world?
Is the American Dream Owning a Mansion?
The neighborhood behind our house is filled with what were once million-dollar homes before the real estate market tanked in 2007. Most of them are 4,000 sq. ft, 3-car garages, top-end interior finishes, lawns professionally landscaped on a weekly basis, etc.
Some home buyers have the goal of buying a house like that in the future (lofty goal for a first-time home buyer though ). They feel that type of house gives them a feeling of self-worth and status vs. buying a modest home in a middle-income neighborhood or just renting a house.
Compare that mindset to the immigrant who lived in a 10 ft. X 10 ft. shack in his former country and finally made it to America in hopes of making a better living to feed himself and his family and maybe have the opportunity to own a home.
Again, both types of people would have similar answers to ‘what is the American dream’ but their motivations are vastly different and will therefore affect others in complete different ways.
If the person hoping to own the million-dollar, 4,000 sq. ft. home has the vision to adopt a bunch of kids to fill that over-sized mansion, for example, that’s an incredibly unselfish and wonderful goal. But if the motivation is to have a higher status in the world by having an extra 3,000 sq. ft. of living space to clean, what good will that do for anyone else (besides the cleaning lady )?
Don’t Get Me Wrong….
I’m making some broad generalizations, as you can see. But I’m not saying people who buy 4,000 sq. ft. homes are selfish and anyone coming to America from a shack is a saint. My point is not to judge anyone, although I’m sure it may sound as if I am.
What I’m trying to say is that whether we realize it or not, most of us have an answer that relates to gaining wealth (buying a home, owning real estate, buying land, etc.) when thinking about what the ‘American dream’ means for us individually.
While I feel it’s absolutely fine to have a goal of buying real estate to gain wealth, I think we need to be cautious about why we’re doing it.
Is our motivation to gain status in this world or is it to benefit others? As tough as it is, I think that’s the key to answering “What is the American dream” so we can affect as many people as possible, in the best way possible.
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