The American Dream

is not a house, or a nicer car, a dream job, the perfect family or a college degree. The phrase comes from this--and it isn't all that old:

James Truslow Adams, a one time investmen banker who lived on his wealth to become a writer, wrote in his 1931 book Epic of America “but there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.”

We've definitely moved away from the idea "according to his ability or achievement, And that was true in 1931 also, as we moved deeper into FDR's socialism and on to "according to his demands and visions of entitlement." Wikipedia says Adams was heavily influenced by Marxism, so maybe it's come full circle.