The Crowder Law Firm Scholarship Fall 2024 Winner

Luke Zelich

Luke’s essay is a poignant piece about how, for so many people, the American Dream has become unattainable. As a law student with exceptional critical thinking skills, Luke’s future truly knows no bounds. We wish to congratulate Luke and wish him all the best in the future!

Read Luke’s Essay:

The American Dream is not about freedom, it is about power. Freedom, as I understand it, is a state of being where an individual is uninfluenced by outside forces. In a free America, an individual could be whoever they wish to be, pursue what they wish to pursue, and all without being influenced or hindered by others at all. This state of being is an illusion. The natural state of being is not freedom, but constant interaction with a variety of forces. Through this lens, I believe that the American Dream is not the attainment of freedom, but the attainment of enough power to realize one’s economic and political goals.

John Locke’s concept of tabula rasa, or “blank slate,” essentially captures why freedom is not reality. According to this theory, all humans are born with neither prejudice, bias, nor irrationality. Our morals and values are learned from our families, schools, friendships, and communities. We are further influenced by the media, the laws of the government, and our religion. In fact, sociologists today say that as much as 99% of our personalities are reflections of the forces that influence us as we age. Let’s stop here and think about this deeper though, and what this says about our state of nature. We are not free, uninfluenced creatures floating in space, but social beings that are influenced by a variety of forces. Who we are and what we can be is largely influenced by geography and access to economic resources.

A person is one in a billion people that influences the state of the world. None of us are free but in a state of conflict and exchange. Therefore, we are not a species that is free, nor are we seeking to be free. Instead, what we are really seeking is the power to influence the world enough to realize our economic and political goals. The attainment of that power through merit is, as I see it, the American Dream.

I should pause and qualify some of what I am saying here. I am not some Hobbesian, Machiavellian cynic that views everyone as power-hungry. To realize one’s political or economic goals can be a simple as buying a home, voting in favor of education funding, or influencing a public policy through protest. If people can meaningfully influence government policy through their actions, then I would say the American Dream has been achieved in that aspect. If people can realize their economic goals such as having a family, buying property, and working in an industry that makes them happy, then I would also say that the American Dream has been achieved. One very important element of this argument is that both economic and political power can be realized through merit and is not disproportionately influenced by pre-existing wealth or power. For example, if the American Dream has been achieved then an individual would not be barred from starting a company or running for office because the existing economic and political forces make such a move nearly impossible. In addition, public policy would not be disproportionately influenced by those with existing wealth.

With that said, the question remains if the American Dream achievable today. Can anyone realize their economic and political goals through merit? The answer, unfortunately, is no.

We live in a monopolistic economy where a few companies own disproportionate shares of a variety of industries. Giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have taken an enormous share of the US economy. With the wealth they have accumulated, they have pumped much of their money into lobbying and campaign donations to ensure that lawmakers write legislation that further reduce their taxes, loosen restrictions on labor protection, and virtually eliminate anti-trust enforcement. Even judgeships, which are elected positions in the United States, receive these campaign donations from large companies mostly to ensure favorability in anti-trust, contract, or bankruptcy cases. They have effectively become the gatekeepers of politics, and without their support it is very difficult to win public office. One of the most heinous examples of this influence is the defunding of the IRS and SEC in the last 30 years, both of which are charged with enforcing financial restrictions on these companies. By accumulating more wealth they can influence politics more and drive out competition by using predatory practices and ensuring no one will enforce existing regulations.

What this means is that the average American cannot create companies that can compete with these giants in the long term. The entry costs are too high, and should the company become too successful it will inevitably be bought out by one of the existing monopolies. Think, why have there been no new American car manufacturers in the last 30 years despite the underperformance of Ford and GM? It’s because those two companies can very easily drive out any new competitors or influence national politics enough to ensure no one touches their existing power. As more wealth has accumulated at the top, less people have wealth broadly, leaving many Americans unable to start a business to realize their economic goals because they do not have enough capital to do so.

Corporate influence in politics, as I have said, is overwhelming and cuts out average Americans from the public policy process. The two-party system in this country is also a problem that leads to political disenfranchisement. In the winner-take-all system we have in electoral politics, only one party can come out on top, meaning that in a 51-49 split, only the 51 end up represented in Congress. That means that millions of votes in the United States are basically worthless if they are not in a district where they can win, and thus their interests are not represented. This system also ensures that third party candidates are almost always dead on arrival, because even if they garner 30-40% of the vote and lose, none of their constituents votes count. The Democratic and Republican parties have so much calcified economic and political influence that no third party since the Civil War has ever won a general election. This means that voters must silence what they want and work within the existing, often restricting, policy direction of the existing parties. In essence, most people in this country are deprived of political influence by being driven into two aristocratic camps that do not represent their interests.

To summarize, the American Dream is not achievable today for most people. Large corporations and the ultra-wealthy wield disproportionate influence over the economy and public policy by rigging the system in their favor. Further, the existing two-party system forces most Americans to choose between two opposing sides that do not actually represent their interests. For these reasons, people are not able to realize their economic and political goals based on merit. There are simply too many pre-existing forces that have muscled out the average American.