Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk.

The “American Dream” is the national ethos of the United States, and is usually equated with success, money, and prosperous living. However, these days it seems this dream is becoming more and more unattainable as 60% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck according to recent reports.

For the full hour, we talk with The New York Times Senior Writer David Leonhardt, and Alissa Quart, author of the book Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream to discuss their thoughts on the quality of living for Americans today and how it relates to the current state of the “American Dream”.

Both guests discuss the concept of the “American Dream” and what it means today compared to previous generations, the myriad of economic hardships faced by many Americans, particularly for millennials and Gen Z, their thoughts on whether the idealized “American Dream” can still be achievable in the future, and more.

Guests:

David Leonhardt

• Senior Writer, The New York Times
• Writer of the NYT flagship daily newsletter The Morning
• Author of the forthcoming book, Ours Was the Shining Future

Alissa Quart

• Author of Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream

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