What the American Dream Looks Like for Gen Alpha

Generally speaking, during most of our history America has been viewed as the land of opportunity. Likewise, our classic American Dream has been the promise that with hard work anyone can improve their livelihood and lives (subject to targeted discrimination). So why does our classic American Dream feel like it’s fading away? It depends on who you ask.

Taking cues from anthropologists and advertising agencies that study context and behaviors to foresee trends, this series compares the classic American Dream to the American Dream as it’s trending and experienced by the generational cohorts we typically designate Boomers (1946-64), Gen X (1965-79), Gen Y/Millennials (1980-94), Gen Z (1995-2012) and Gen Alpha (2013-25). As you compare your lived experience against our American Dream construct and trend for your cohort, we’d love to hear your feedback.

Image Credit: LA Times

The Classic American Dream

The classic American Dream is a vision that combines hope, opportunity, freedom, and individual responsibility. While its meaning and context will almost certainly vary from person to next, several core themes have endured:

Opportunity for All

At its heart, the classic American Dream is the belief that anyone—regardless of birth, background, or circumstance—can improve their life through their effort, talent, and determination (subject to targeted discrimination). It also assumes a society where pathways to success are open and merit matters.

Upward Mobility

Traditionally, this American Dream centers on the promise of economic and social mobility. Whether for the individual or family unit, this usually includes stable employment, homeownership, financial security, access to skill building/education, and the ability to provide a better life for one’s children. In this view, everyone expected the kids to enjoy better economic and social standing than their parents.

Freedom and Self-Determination

The classic American Dream includes the liberty to define one’s own path—to choose a career, express beliefs, start a business, or reinvent oneself. In this way it’s both material and existential. Not merely having more but being free to become more.

Equality of Chance, Not Equality of Outcomes

This American Dream is tied to a vision of fairness. Here, the ideal is that one’s destiny should not be predetermined by class, race, or birthright. The emphasis is on a level playing field and equal opportunity, even if outcomes differ. (We can all acknowledge the disconnect between the ideal and the reality. Still, the Dream strived for the ideal.)

Ideally and no matter one's station in life -- poor or rich -- financial stability is typically an element of how every person's version of the American Dream plays out. To the extent financial stability is disconnected from one's version of the American Dream, the more stress in that person's life. In other words, the more the financial instability the greater the stress - followed by anger.

In essence, the classic American Dream is the promise that with hard work and fair chances, people can shape their own futures and pursue lives of dignity, prosperity, and purpose. It has long been a national aspiration as well as a deeply personal one, and in this way has been a unifying American value. But is it still?

In the early 20^th century the American Dream focused on individual freedom and escaping old-world hierarchies. By mid-century it usually meant a suburban home, car, steady job, and the chance for the kids to go to college instead of war. So, if the American Dream does evolve, what does it look like in the 21^st century?

How’s the Dream Looking for Generation Alpha?

A month ago we closed the calendar on 2025. With that, we also marked the last of the Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha) births. While there’s currently some debate regarding the start/stop for Gen Alpha birth years, we’ll put stakes in the ground at 2013-2025 as it’s generally accepted that Gen Z ended with 2012 and it increasingly appears Generation Beta begins with 2026.

So how do we rationally approach the likelihood of realizing the classic American Dream for a cohort whose most senior members are just now turning 13 years old? We think the cleanest and least cluttered approach (i.e., avoiding unbounded speculation, including to what extent AI will transform future jobs and careers) is to introduce the current costs of those elements most commonly identify with the current American Dream. Then, in light of current trends and with minimum speculation, explore how Gen Alpha might respond to those costs.

We do appreciate that this post, the last in this series regarding the American Dream, is most likely to be read by the parents of Gen Alphas rather than Gen Alphas themselves (at least anytime soon). And that’s fine. This just gives those parents an additional perspective by which to help the next generation entering adulthood. Ultimately, we trust this post – and this entire series – serves everyone well.

Image Credit: Kasasa

The Current Cost of the American Dream

In September 2025 the reputable financial content creator and publisher Investopedia published the findings of its 2025 survey that explores the cost of the American Dream.

By way of a very brief overview, the survey of 1,263 adults identified the “eight pillars of classic American middle-class aspiration.” Then Investopedia calculated the current costs of those pillars and carried those costs out over an average lifespan. All totaled, those costs reach a lifetime projected cost of $5,043,323.

Here’s our snapshot summary of the Investopedia survey results and costs:

% of 1,263 Adults - Who say their American Dream includes:	2025 Costs
86% - Being able to retire comfortably	$1,636,881
86% - Being able to afford quality healthcare	$   414,208
85% - Owning a home	$   957,594
78% - Family - raising two kids through college	$   876,092
72% - Driving a new(er) car	$   900,346
71% - Taking a nice, yearly vacation	$   180,621
66% - Having pets (one dog & one cat continuously)	$     39,381
55% - Having a wedding	$     38,200
	$5,043,323

You can read the full Investopedia article here. Indeed, we encourage you to do so after reading this post. It’ll be helpful to understand the authors’ methodology including limitations, data collection, and analysis. You’ll also see reasonable caveats and disclaimers, such as no one is required to pursue these pillars and the same pillars might have different contours and cost. Nevertheless, these pillars and costs are useful as current expectations reflective of the classic American Dream we discuss above. (As an aside, we especially appreciate that Investopedia uses fact checkers and includes them on article bylines.)

Can Gen Alpha Afford this Dream?

Let’s jump right in and address the threshold question. If an average American Dream costs an estimated $5MM and an average American with a college education earns just at $3.0MM over his or her career, how does a Gen Alpha expect to bridge the $2MM gap? There are three basic answers.

One answer is for those Gen Alphas who want it and have access to generational wealth: They may receive enough financial help from their Gen X/Millennial parents or inherit enough assets from their Boomer grandparents to bridge the gap. These Gen Alpha’s may be able to sustain a recognizable version of the classic American Dream.

Another answer is for those Gen Alphas who want it and don’t have access to generational wealth: They may be able to enjoy a shadow version of the classic American Dream. A version which could include many of the pillars identified in the Investopedia survey and on a smaller scale. This comes as no surprise, as in previous posts we described how Millennials and Gen Zers have experienced the clear fading of the classic American Dream.

For the third answer: Many Gen Alphas will be involuntarily shut out of any version of the American Dream while others will voluntarily step away from pursing it. Why step away? Because they see that spending their life’s energy on an unattainable pursuit is futile. Gen Alphas, like anyone of any generation, will have to attend to satisfying their basic physical needs. But after that, we foresee, a growing minority if not majority of Gen Alpha will accelerate a clear shift away from a focus on the physical dimension of life to a focus on the spiritual dimension.

Will They Want To?

To foresee Gen Alpha clearly shifting their focus from the physical dimension to the spiritual should come as no surprise. This simply continues the parallel American Dream trend started by their Millennials forebearers and further developed by Gen Y and Gen Z predecessors that we discussed in those posts.

How will this shift likely manifest with Gen Alpha, particularly as the first generation to grow up with AI from birth? Because traditional college may be too expensive or obsolete, their education will center on adaptability, continuous learning, and creative problem-solving. Because housing is such an uncertainty, their living arrangements will likely involve living at home longer and multi-generational housing. Because employment has become so fractured, unless they create a sustainable business they will have not just multiple jobs but likely multiple careers. Because they are growing up with priorities around wellbeing, balance and healthy relations they will likely seek less material achievement and more personal equilibrium. And because their digital world exposes them to diversity, global connectivity and an awareness of social and environment issues, their American Dream will likely be more environmentally conscious, purpose-driven and socially interconnected.

Gen Alpha may be the first modern generation for whom the American Dream is more about designing a meaningful life than trying to fit into a faded traditional one. To craft a meaningful life they will need to be able to discern what ignites them to come alive! That’s the first spiritual skill to develop – discernment. Other spiritual skills to develop, which will prove to be survival skills, include mindfulness, resilience, wisdom (the proper application of the proper knowledge), faith (as a gateway to courage), courage (to take action in the face of the unknown), empathy (as the gateway to compassion), compassion (as the gateway to love), love (which is courage driven compassion). Indeed, image the exhilarating freedom to truly design one’s life from the very start of adulthood!

This is the last post in this series that explores the American Dream as experienced across five difference generations. You can start the series here, and we recommend you do. Meanwhile, consider what you can do to help restore the classic American Dream or help pave the way for a spiritually enlightened American Dream, and get started!

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