American dream

The simple rule of the American game: follow the law, work hard, and get rich.

The belief that a poor nobody can become rich through hard work, providence, and disciplined self-improvement.

Here Jiang treats it as the older unifying national promise that has died and been reduced to the desperate goal of merely escaping debt.

Jiang treats the American dream not just as an economic promise but as a sacred narrative supplying meaning to people who lack another mythic frame.

The American game requires openness, fairness, and clarity: anyone can come and play, the rules are simple, and wealth should follow work, talent, and merit.

Franklin’s autobiography becomes the seed of an American self-help tradition: the belief that one can and must improve status through method, hard work, and discipline.

He argues that the American dream has died for young people and has been replaced by a defensive desire to avoid debt.

He argues the American dream is effectively dead and has shrunk into the impossible goal of merely getting or staying out of debt.

Jiang says America fills that vacuum by offering the American dream as a sacred narrative: work hard, get rich, and achieve meaning.

Jiang says older America largely worked this way, because immigrants became American by buying into stories such as the Constitution and the American Dream.

Jiang says the Ivy League's monopoly over education has collapsed the American dream and social mobility by turning education into a permanently rigged game.

Jiang says most jobs do not require passing through meritocratic tournaments; they require proper mentoring and apprenticeship, which would reopen access to the American dream.