The cartoon “The American pipe dream“ by Mike Keefe, from 2012, deals with the American dream in our days and the impossibility to make it.
In the center of the background, you can see a big villa with a garage and two cars, as well as a garden. It has white walls and green pitched roofs. The doorway is big and there are many windows and a chimney. The house looks like a perfect family home and is obviously the aim of the young family, you can find in the lower left corner of the first layer of the image.
They are trying to reach the top of the hill or mountain on which we can see the villa. The man and his wife directly look at the house, desperately trying to reach it. However, the house seems to fly away, since it flows above the ground. …show more content…
The cartoonist is making the point with the caption in the box, that the American dream is in his opinion a pipe dream of the people combined with high illusions and expectations that can't be reached and are unrealistic and a wishful thought.
The majority of the people in the US try to reach the top of the society and achieve the American dream by buying an own house or cars and having a high living standard. However, they don’t realize they are plunged into debts, as the young family, the cartoonist presents.
The cartoonist compares the journey to the top of the society the family tries to achieve with a debilitating ascent of a …show more content…
The weight on the ankle shackle with the tag underemployment seems to pull the man down and is an additional weight he has to carry around. The cartoonist refers to the tightening job market in the US. Since the economic crisis in 2008, the unemployment rate increased and the job market decreased. Due to the smaller job market, many people are unemployed and even for those with a high school diploma, job prospects are more limited than ever. The average high school graduate today makes less than the average high school graduate did in 1980.
Next, to the low chances of getting a job with a high salary, most of the graduates leave university with high debts, making them unable to earn the „big money“ in their first 10 years of working. A lot of universities offer loan systems for their graduates to support those who can't afford the fees for the education. Almost 50 percent of the students have to finance the fees privately and have to accept to run in debt with the universities to get their
In the center of the background, you can see a big villa with a garage and two cars, as well as a garden. It has white walls and green pitched roofs. The doorway is big and there are many windows and a chimney. The house looks like a perfect family home and is obviously the aim of the young family, you can find in the lower left corner of the first layer of the image.
They are trying to reach the top of the hill or mountain on which we can see the villa. The man and his wife directly look at the house, desperately trying to reach it. However, the house seems to fly away, since it flows above the ground. …show more content…
The cartoonist is making the point with the caption in the box, that the American dream is in his opinion a pipe dream of the people combined with high illusions and expectations that can't be reached and are unrealistic and a wishful thought.
The majority of the people in the US try to reach the top of the society and achieve the American dream by buying an own house or cars and having a high living standard. However, they don’t realize they are plunged into debts, as the young family, the cartoonist presents.
The cartoonist compares the journey to the top of the society the family tries to achieve with a debilitating ascent of a …show more content…
The weight on the ankle shackle with the tag underemployment seems to pull the man down and is an additional weight he has to carry around. The cartoonist refers to the tightening job market in the US. Since the economic crisis in 2008, the unemployment rate increased and the job market decreased. Due to the smaller job market, many people are unemployed and even for those with a high school diploma, job prospects are more limited than ever. The average high school graduate today makes less than the average high school graduate did in 1980.
Next, to the low chances of getting a job with a high salary, most of the graduates leave university with high debts, making them unable to earn the „big money“ in their first 10 years of working. A lot of universities offer loan systems for their graduates to support those who can't afford the fees for the education. Almost 50 percent of the students have to finance the fees privately and have to accept to run in debt with the universities to get their