Living the dream. The American dream Social Sciences Essay

Grandfather: high school degree, farmerFather: Undergraduate, entrepreneurs
Living the Dream
 The American Dream might not be “American” insofar as its contents are shared by members of many other societies, which is not to deny its uniquely American or historically variable aspects either, e.g., a home in the suburbs. Nonetheless, it is a recognizable term for Americans and one can find it embedded in our culture, e.g., there was an album of the same name (by CSNY) and a television show as well (at the beginning of the Millennium). Let’s go to wiki for a brief summary:
https://en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/American_Dream
Assignment 4 asks you to assess one of the primary indices of the dream, occupational prestige, in terms of family experience. International students can extend the same analysis to Chinese life though I can’t provide guidance in terms of occupational listings that might be useful.
The University of Chicago has conducted the General Social Survey (GSS) for a number of years at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and it’s a useful means to detect ways in which occupational prestige changes over the years. It also provides a basis for any number of job satisfaction ratings scales. Students should include a link for the scale selected for this assignment, for example:
https://www(dot)careercast(dot)com/jobs-rated/2011-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst
Now that you have lists of relatives’ occupations and made assessments of the social class each might be linked to, the final part of assignment 4 asks you to assess occupational mobility in more precise terms of socioeconomic status (SES). Begin by match a prestige ranking to each occupation on your lists. Then, using either your own or your same-sex parent’s occupation as a basis for comparison, summarize family experiences with mobility.
Using my family as an example, a list of ancestors’ occupations includes:
Great Grandfather: Artist (83)
Grandfather: High School Principal (40)
Father: Lawyer (83)          Kevin: Sociologist (20)
Similarly, a list of siblings’ occupations includes:
Elder Sister: Orthopedic Surgeon (82)
Next Younger Sister: Insurance Claims Adjuster (103)
Next Younger Brother: Artist (83)
Sister: Business Owner
Of course, my lists could go on but you get the point; each occupation has been linked to a ranking (in parentheses). Thus, my analysis of family occupational mobility reveals both upward and downward vertical mobility on both inter- and intra-generational listings relative to my occupation. However, it’s worth noting these results might vary using a scale other than the one I selected, which measured job satisfaction:
https://www(dot)careercast(dot)com/jobs-rated/2011-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst
A list of most prestigious occupations that drew a lot of attention last year has a more restricted list of occupations:
https://www(dot)marketingcharts(dot)com/industries/media-and-entertainment-10045
Potential Snags: Your siblings or you don’t have an occupation yet. Solution: Pretend you have the one you are seeking. Ancestor’s occupation no longer exists. Solution: Find a similar one