Skylar Schuth 9/9/15

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Section SE
Samantha Futhey

Foroohars Reflections on the Lost American Dream

The gap between the rich and poor is rising with every passing day. It has gotten to the
point in which the gap is no longer feasibly crossable. Rana Foroohar discusses this in her article
for the Times magazine, What Ever Happened to Upward Mobility, published on November 4
2011. She argues that America is no longer a country where the poor can become rich. She states
that there is a significant disconnect between how fluid Americans believe the classes are and
how fluid they are in reality. She also makes an emotional appeal at the right time through the
faces of people who are suffering through poverty in America. Foroohar successfully combines
statistics, the struggles of Americans, and an eager audience to punch a hole through the
American dream.
Foroohar frequently grounds her arguments in statistics. If you were born in 1970 in the
bottom one-fifth of the socioeconomic spectrum in the U.S., you only had about a 17% chance of
making it into the upper two fifths. (903) She does this to show that there is a disconnect
between the public perception and the reality of the current economic situation. If she did not use
the facts people would disregard her statements because of their own biases. So she inserted all
of the statistics to prove that this growing divide is undeniable and is happening here and now.
This gives all of her arguments credibility and shows that she is well versed on the subject.
While Foroohar uses a lot of facts, she also utilizes the images of people affected by
income inequality to stir an emotional response from the viewer. It is easy to disassociate the
people from the numbers in a statistically heavy text like hers. So she uses faces and homes of

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individual people to show you the actual effects on people in America today. That way you know
the true effect that income inequality is having on a personal level. Foroohar also challenges the
American nationalistic pride. Foroohar makes this clear by attempting to disprove the American
dream. Its easier to climb the socioeconomic ladder in many parts of Europe than it is in the
U.S. (904) By showing that America is not actually the land of opportunity that weve all heard
it deals a massive blow to the idealistic America that we believe is our country. This forces the
audience to open up to the possibilities of what the situation in America could actually look like
by disproving their preconceived bias.
The faces of the Americans also help her connect to her audience, which is middle to
lower class, college educated Americans. It is apparent by the language that she uses. She
frequently uses her large vocabulary as well as make comparisons to lesser known historical
figures like Alexis de Torqueville. Her references show that she expects her audience to be well
read so they can understand why she brings up the characters that she does. This knowledge is
most likely only gained through higher education which means she assumes her audience has
gone through higher education. It is also shown through the themes of the piece. The
disenfranchisement of the lower class is going to resonate with the lower class more than the
upper class. Although she does add a caveat near end showing that income inequality hurts the
rich as well through economic consequences such as less stable economies. It would appear that
she doesnt expects her audience to be wealthy because she only had the one brief mentioning of
their problems with income inequality as opposed to the many arguments for the lower class.

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When the article was published her audience was definitely looking for this kind of
information. It was published on Nov. 14 2011, just one month after the Occupy Wall Street
protests started up. Back then the nation was still reeling from the Great Recession and people
were angry over the bail outs of the bankers who they saw as the cause of the collapse. By
publishing this article then it addressed the peoples concerns over those problems.
Foroohar addresses the concerns having modern Americans troubles with the growing
income inequality in America. She does this through her flood of facts, a humanized appeal, and
an eager audience. Foroohar wraps this into a compelling argument fort change in our system.

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Works Cited
Foroohar, Rana. What Ever Happened to Upward Mobility. Everythings an Argument.
Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Riszkiewicz. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2013, 108-10. Print.
Rpt. of What Ever Happened to Upward Mobility. Times Magazine 4 November 2011