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Young people feel the American Dream feels out of reach. Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, the Founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA, discusses this with Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation editor-in-chief on the Work in Progress podcast
Young people feel the American Dream feels out of reach. Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, the Founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA, discusses this with Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation editor-in-chief on the Work in Progress podcast
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Gen Z says the job market and the high coast of education are standing in the way of the American Dream

A conversation with Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, founder and CEO, Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA
By Ramona Schindelheim
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In this episode of Work in Progress, we’re talking about the American Dream: What it means to young people and what they think is standing in the way of them achieving it. My guest is Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA, whose new study says the American Dream remains desirable but feels out of reach to most Gen Z Americans.

Young people born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s fall into the demographic commonly called Generation Z, or Gen Z. Like any generation, they are diverse, coming from different economic, social, geographical, and cultural backgrounds.

What they all have in common is that they spent their formative years growing up in the digital world of social media and smart phones. And this seems to have played a major role in how they view the American Dream. More about that in a moment.

The American Dream: We Want It, But Will We Ever Get it?

The study from the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA finds that young people say economic and financial challenges – including the high cost of education – are making achieving the American Dream feel increasingly unattainable to them, Dr. Uhls tells me.

According to the study, 60% of the young people surveyed say “the American Dream is realistic and achievable for most people in today’s society, but 60% also say it would be difficult to achieve it themselves personally.”

“We thought maybe they were redefining the American Dream and thinking perhaps the American Dream meant clean air or community stuff, but in fact they still believe in the American Dream. Maybe not believe in it, but they want the American Dream,” Dr. Uhls tells me.

“Everybody wants to succeed in the way that their family did or even more than their family did, but they don’t believe that they can achieve it. And that is based on the reality of their lives. There is such income and inequality; it is just increasing. They also don’t believe that the system works. They don’t believe that politics work, education is broken.

“The things that are meant to be able to lift us up and get you on a path of economic stability, unfortunately is not really prevalent in today’s society, in particular from those from lower-income families,” says Dr. Uhls.

I ask her what she believes is driving that idea that other people are achieving financial and career success, but it is going to pass me by.. That’s where social media plays a big role.

How Social Media Is Shaping Gen Z’s View of the American Dream

Among the study’s finding, Gen Z are forming their perceptions about the American Dream from social media, with 50% saying Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube – and to some extent Facebook and X – are the biggest influences on how they view the American Dream

“There’s so many get-rich-quick schemes on social media. Everybody is portraying themselves as having more than they really do. And when you’re young and you don’t have the life experience to think, ‘Well, is that real, or maybe they are putting on a game face?,’ you may believe it more.

“It’s nothing new. It’s just more accessible and it’s all over and in many different domains because everyone can do this and they can look at it all the time on their phones anywhere. So it can really influence the way someone feels about themselves and the way that they feel about their ability to be like someone else.

“I’m a developmental psychologist. We have a term called social comparison. Not a very complicated term, but it is a theory that was developed 70 years ago about how we compare ourselves to others to understand how to be in the world, and there’s upward social comparison and downward social comparison.

“Upward social comparison where you’re looking at someone that’s achieved a great deal can often make you feel worse because you feel that you can never get there. Every once in a while it can inspire you, but a lot of times it can make you feel worse and you see a lot of that on social media,” she explains.

So, how do young people define the American Dream today and what do they think they need to do to get there? Hint: economic stability plays a key role in their definition, but it’s not to only criteria, according to the report. Also, while social media is a key influencer in their feelers about the American Dream, they say their portrayal on television is also a factor.

Dr. Uhls and I take a closer look at those parts of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA study in the podcast, which can listen to here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 355: Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, Founder & CEO, Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.

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