The concept of the "American Dream" has brought people to and provided hope for people in this country since its founding. However, there are those today who argue that the American Dream is in trouble, does not exist anymore, that there is no such thing as a "self made man", or, that government needs to provide special opportunities so that those of lesser circumstances can rise in this country. This is all complete B___ S___! Two quick examples: 1. In the year 2000, Dr. Ben Chavis took over The American Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS), a failed middle school, in Oakland, California. He not only turned it around, but brought it to the top in under 10 years! Not bad for Chavis, an American Indian raised in a sharecropper's shack with no electricity in North Carolina. You can read about his story, Crazy Like a Fox, here. 2. Arthur Burns, former Fed Chairman under Richard Nixon, was an immigrant from Galicia, the son of a housepainter who had risen to become the foremost expert on US economic cycles and chief economist to Dwight Eisenhower…. Bloomberg BusinessWeek August 8, 2011. There are millions of stories like these. I will guarantee that you have them in your family. People are still flooding into this country legally and otherwise to escape other parts of the world where this type of individual freedom to improve the circumstances of their birth still exists. The only thing stopping people today from realizing the American Dream is having a dream, having the desire (hard work and perseverance) to achieve that dream, and obstacles inserted by government over the last 40 years that reduces motivation. Those who believe the American Dream no longer exists are right, because their pessimism won't let them have the dream or invest the work necessary to achieve the dream. And, their misguided belief that you can legislate opportunity to replace motivation. Our challenge today is not to let those people continue to ruin the positive mindset of the people or continue to establish limits to freedom which provide the foundation for the American Dream.