Philippa Pham Hughes argues that the traditional American Dream has been corrupted into a narrow pursuit of wealth, eroding our shared humanity and deepening inequality. She calls for a “New American Dream” centered on human flourishing—rooted in dignity, belonging, art and beauty, and economic security—where every person can thrive authentically within America’s diverse and interconnected society.
This essay is one of 26 that form our Out of Many, One anthology. We invited people from across disciplines to share with us their thoughts on how the ideas of American Universalism can shape our nation moving forward.
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By Philippa Pham Hughes
Former social practice resident at the Kennedy Center, visiting artist at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and lecturer at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan
I am an American.
I know I am, because my parents filed a “Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America” with the U.S. Consul in the Philippines, stating that they had met all the requirements to assure my citizenship. On the same day that my parents reported my birth, the U.S. State Department issued a birth certificate and a U.S. passport.
These documents were the evidence of my American birthright, guaranteeing my right to enjoy the benefits of U.S. citizenship. To seize the American Dream. Today that dream seems to have been corrupted into a simple pursuit of wealth—at the cost of our human flourishing.
In his farewell address, Ronald Reagan said, “You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.’‘ Even though I was born American, I still had to become American. My Asian face would always mark me as a foreigner. I sometimes wished I could carry my American documents with me for the times when people would ask me, where are you really from?
To become an American in Reagan’s America meant assimilating. As a little girl I held up my eyelids and pinched the top of my nose in a futile attempt at whitening my features. I learned the Puritan work ethic from Jo March and the scrappy pioneer spirit from Laura Ingalls Wilder; in college I was even a member of the Scandinavian Interest Club. To join the American melting pot meant melting into Whiteness.
To assimilate meant sacrificing essential parts of myself. I rejected my Vietnamese heritage, suppressed my artistic inclinations, and made myself small and palatable. These compromises allowed me to achieve the material trappings typically associated with the American Dream. I never felt like I belonged, though. I never achieved my fullest potential. No matter how much material wealth I acquired, I would never be fully considered American.
My Asian face would always betray me.
As we approach America’s 250th birthday this year, I envision a New American Dream—one that honors its original meaning, yet evolves beyond it. This reimagined dream transcends mere material wealth, embracing instead the full flourishing of every American. It celebrates our individual and collective ability to contain multitudes and draws strength from the increasing diversity that defines our nation.
The Original American Dream
James Truslow Adams coined the term “American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America. He defined it as a dream of a land where life should be better, richer, and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. The core of Adams’ American Dream was not about material wealth but about social equality and human dignity.
Writing during the Great Depression, Adams specifically warned that the pursuit of mere material prosperity was undermining what he saw as the true American Dream. He wasn’t against economic stability—in fact, he recognized it as necessary for human dignity. What he objected to was the single-minded pursuit of wealth at the expense of other values. He worried that focusing too much on financial success would create new social barriers rather than dismantling them. His concerns have proven prophetic as wealth disparities have reached levels not seen since his era.
Adams believed this dream was unique to America because of its founding principles of equality and its historic role as a land of opportunity for immigrants seeking a better life. However, he also acknowledged that the country often fell short of fully realizing these ideals.
The Dream Today
Today, the American Dream is commonly understood as a path to wealth accumulation—making more money, buying bigger homes, acquiring more stuff. But this understanding has gone awry, contributing to staggering wealth disparities and disconnecting us from what Adams intended when he coined the term.
This distorted vision of endless material acquisition has established a zero-sum mentality in which success comes at someone else’s expense, and human value is measured primarily through financial metrics. It has normalized levels of inequality that undermine democracy itself—concentrating not just wealth but power and opportunity in fewer and fewer hands.
We’ve created a moral hierarchy based on wealth that contradicts our democratic principles—valuing the voices of the affluent above others, undervaluing essential but lower-paid work, applying different standards of accountability, and allowing money to directly influence politics. The pursuit of possessions has eroded our families, communities, and personal well-being, too. Our system increasingly replaces government “of the people, by the people, for the people” with governance determined by wealth rather than citizenship.
The New American Dream: To Flourish
I propose we return to Adams’ original vision and update it for our contemporary context. In my vision, the New American Dream centers human flourishing.
Flourishing transcends mere success or happiness—it represents the full realization of human potential and well-being across all dimensions of life. Unlike prosperity, flourishing encompasses intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. When we flourish, we experience not just material sufficiency but a deeper sense of meaning, purpose, and connection. Only when everyone flourishes can we reach the ideals of universalism—that all people regardless of their background deserve freedom, essential rights, and dignity.
In practical terms, flourishing means developing our unique talents and abilities to their fullest. It means engaging in work that challenges and fulfills us, not merely pays well. It means building relationships characterized by mutual care and respect rather than utility. It means contributing meaningfully to the communities we inhabit. Modern psychological research supports this understanding, finding that genuine well-being comes from autonomy, competence, relatedness, and a sense of meaning—not from wealth accumulation beyond what provides for basic needs.
Collective flourishing depends on individual flourishing. Individual flourishing depends on social conditions that enable everyone to develop their capabilities. We cannot truly flourish while others are prevented from doing the same. This interconnectedness means that fostering others’ flourishing ultimately enhances our own.
Four Pillars of the New American Dream
Universalism requires not just theoretical equality but the practical conditions for each person to develop their full capacities and live with dignity. To create these conditions, I propose four pillars of flourishing:
Dignity forms the cornerstone of human flourishing, recognizing the inherent and equal worth of every person regardless of their circumstances, abilities, or social position. When we honor dignity, we acknowledge that each person possesses intrinsic value simply by virtue of being human. This fundamental respect for human worth shapes how we structure our institutions, conduct our relationships, and measure success in society. Unlike achievement-based metrics of value, dignity provides a universal foundation for human rights and ethical treatment that applies equally to all. A society built on dignity rejects the notion that human value depends on productivity, wealth, status, or other external markers of “success.” Instead, it creates conditions where each person can develop their unique capacities while being recognized as inherently valuable.
Belonging is fundamental to human flourishing, addressing our innate need for connection within a larger community or social fabric. When people experience genuine belonging, they are recognized and valued for their authentic selves, not merely tolerated or conditionally accepted based on their assimilation to dominant norms. This sense of being “at home” among others creates psychological safety that allows individuals to develop their unique potential without the constant anxiety of rejection or marginalization. Belonging transcends mere inclusion—it means having one’s full humanity acknowledged across differences of background, appearance, or perspective. In diverse societies especially, creating conditions where everyone can belong without surrendering their distinctiveness is essential for collective flourishing. As our society becomes increasingly diverse, cultivating this deeper sense of belonging—where difference enriches rather than threatens our shared identity—becomes even more crucial to our collective flourishing.
Art and beauty are essential elements of human flourishing, serving not as mere luxuries but as vital components that nourish our fullest development. When we encounter beauty—whether in nature, visual arts, music, or literature—we experience a form of transcendence that connects us to something larger than ourselves. This connection cultivates our capacity for wonder and awe, emotions that research shows can shift us from transactional to relational ways of being. Art amplifies diverse voices, preserves cultural memory, fosters critical thinking, and creates accessible public spaces where citizens can gather across social divides. Through artistic expression, we develop empathy by imaginatively experiencing lives different from our own—a crucial capacity for a flourishing society where individuals must consider not just their personal interests but the common good. Without maintaining our capacity to recognize and create beauty, we risk losing sight of the world we seek to build and the fullness of what it means to be human.
Economic security forms the essential foundation for human flourishing. Without basic material sufficiency, the capacity for dignity is severely constrained. When people lack economic security, their focus necessarily narrows to immediate survival needs, preventing the broader development of their capacities and potential. The New American Dream rejects the notion that wealth alone creates fulfillment, while recognizing that material deprivation fundamentally restricts human possibility. Economic security is not the end goal of flourishing, but rather the necessary starting point from which authentic human flourishing can emerge. Examples of economic security include stable and living-wage employment, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, reliable transportation, adequate retirement savings, manageable debt levels, and sufficient emergency funds to weather unexpected hardships without catastrophic consequences.
Unlike the zero-sum competition embedded in conventional interpretations of the American Dream, flourishing multiplies when shared. When we create conditions for all to flourish—conditions where people can attain “the fullest stature of which they are innately capable,” as Adams envisioned, we generate a positive cycle where individual and collective well-being reinforce each other.
Instead of GDP and stock market indices alone, we would value dignity, which requires seeing a person as an end in themselves, not merely as a means to economic enrichment. We would prioritize belonging, understanding that when people feel they truly belong, they can become the highest and best versions of themselves. We would emphasize art and beauty’s essential roles in fostering empathy, preserving cultural memory, and building the social cohesion that democracy requires. We would recognize that basic economic security is not merely a personal achievement but a foundation for human flourishing.
The American Dream Reimagined
The American Dream is not a fixed concept but one that must be continuously renegotiated to remain relevant. Just as it evolved from Adams’ original vision of social equality and human dignity to the materialistic version that dominated the late twentieth century, it can and must transform again to meet the needs of today’s America.
Walt Whitman declared, “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.” For Whitman, both poetry and democracy derive their power from creating unity amid diversity—weaving disparate voices into a harmonious whole without erasing their distinctiveness. In “I Hear America Singing,” he celebrated the many kinds of individuals who make up our society: “The varied carols I hear... Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.” This poetic vision recognizes that both individual expression and collective harmony are essential to America’s promise.
In this 250th year of our nation, when we are one generation away from a majority-minority America, this vision is more vital than ever. The demographic shifts reshaping our nation aren’t threats to our cohesion but opportunities to enrich our collective capacity for creativity, resilience, and innovation. When societies become more diverse but fail to be inclusive, fragmentation and polarization follow. The social fabric unravels. Democracy falters. The alternative is creating a shared narrative of belonging where different groups see themselves as part of a common future—where our unity is forged not despite our differences but because of them, each distinct voice essential to America’s enduring strength and promise.
In pursuing the New American Dream, no child needs to hold up their eyelids or hide their heritage to belong. No one should have to carry documents to prove they are American enough. In this new version of the American Dream, belonging comes not from conforming but from contributing your authentic self to our collective story.
The New American Dream includes 330 million different ways to be American—330 million different American dreams.
Kindness and compassion are beautiful to me.
You have such a gorgeous face, lovely lass
Kindness and compassion are beautiful to me.
You have such a gorgeous face, lovely lass