Social Justice and the American Dream

The American Dream means something different for everyone, but most people's conception of the Dream involves having opportunities. Economic freedom, freedom of speech, the freedom to life, liberty and happiness, call it what you will, liberty in all senses of the word are exceedingly important to the concept of the American Dream.

So what about Social Justice? Do liberal social democracies, with their steeply progressive taxation, health and education standards and social services in some way stymie the true American desire? Certainly free market democracy, in its attempt to use market mechanisms to produce social goods without democratic control, fits well with our conception of freedom and the American Dream; but it's also important to ask exactly whose freedoms are at risk of being restricted by embracing a system of social justice?

Redistributive taxation may come at the expense of the rich, but the social services and social safety nets it allows for are exceedingly important for those stuck in the lower economic rungs of society. Is it really such a bad thing to restrict some of these freedoms of the disgustingly rich in order to provide the bare systems of support needed by the poor?

The real question is: does the American Dream have limits? Should it? There must be a balance between the opportunities of a free market economy and the guarantees provided by liberal social democracies. Isn't it worth mildly restricting the American Dream of few in order to greatly facilitate that of many?