The American Dream Score

[Ava]

This is the article

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/your-american-dream-score-quiz-galewill_us_5930806ee4b02478cb99cf39


And this is the survey

movingupusa.com/#about


Pretty interesting.

I got 67 which means I had more things working against me than on my favor.
I expected a better score.

I hope the links work.

[busymom]

I scored 70, which means more things working against me than for me.  


(A bit surprised, but then, I've never been the type to give up.)  

[Sharon]

I also got a score of 67 which really surprised me.  I actually thought it would be much Lower.

ETA: Changed to lower, can't type tonight.

[Tennesseer]

Scored a 49.  "Your score of 49 means nearly every factor has been working in your favor and very little working against you."

I knew that.

[Pants]

I had most factors working in my favor.

This does not surprise me.

[msventoux]

Jun 3, 2017 22:44:53 GMT -5 busymom said:

I scored 70, which means more things working against me than for me.  


(A bit surprised, but then, I've never been the type to give up.)  

I got 70 too.

Not sure I totally agree with this survey. I didn't have a great start in life, but they seem to be indicating that learning coping skills and having to work hard is a bad thing.

I think those things aren't easy, but aren't ultimately a bad thing to ones development. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd been born with all the advantages and had been allowed to be a special snowflake.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I got 56.  Working against me was my health and parents.  While my parents weren't college educated, both realized the importance and supported it fully.  I don't see how them not being college educated worked against me.

My health issues happened relatively late, so they didn't have as huge an impact upon my life as if they had happened 20 years earlier.

IMO, the survey questions leave a lot of qualifiers, not just yes or no.

[justme]

Mine was 56. Which is not surprising with so many questions revolving around having married, involved parents and attending decent schools.

[tskeeter]

So, what are we supposed to learn from this?  And how are we supposed to respond?  Does this mean that we should force people to demonstrate that they will be good, capable parents before we let the have kids?  Or something else?

[NastyWoman]

Mine was 60, but I think that the quiz was too US centric to give truly meaningful results. Still I think that my general health and ease with which I have been able to learn new things were and are pure luck. Being at the right place at the right time has also worked in my favor. Hard work and using the afore mentioned freebies account for the rest.

[milee]

Jun 3, 2017 22:57:03 GMT -5 msventoux said:

Jun 3, 2017 22:44:53 GMT -5 busymom said:

I scored 70, which means more things working against me than for me.  


(A bit surprised, but then, I've never been the type to give up.)  

I got 70 too.

Not sure I totally agree with this survey. I didn't have a great start in life, but they seem to be indicating that learning coping skills and having to work hard is a bad thing.

I think those things aren't easy, but aren't ultimately a bad thing to ones development. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd been born with all the advantages and had been allowed to be a special snowflake.

I got a 70, too. Was wondering about the background and premise of the survey, so poked around the link to up.atavist.com that describes more. The author appears to believe that two main things determine success potential - where you grow up and how supportive your childhood was. For example, one of the pages is focused on a test that indicates how much childhood trauma a person experienced. A low score is good. I got a 6 out of 10 so the author would assume I'm an alcoholic that's attempted suicide. While those early childhood experiences have definitely made it harder for me to be a good parent, they haven't impacted my financial success as much as the author would predict. I suspect some of the difference is a person's ability to compartmentalize issues. People who are able to compartmentalize have a better chance of being able to continue to work and function in some parts of their life even when the remainder of their life is in the toilet. No idea if the ability to compartmentalize is innate or can be learned.

[milee]

Another factor that is critical to success but that this author (and most others) seem to ignore is a person's willingness to live with pain. Most successful people I know (not just financially successful but athletes, etc) regularly make the conscious decision to continue with their efforts despite pain. Whether it's the broken toe they tape up and continue playing, the all nighters they pull to get their work done or just continuing to function when their entire world is on fire, they decide to keep on. That is not the same thing as not feeling pain. They feel the same pain, tiredness, hopelessness... but make the decision to play through.

[Deleted]

And sometimes that ability is actually strengthened by trauma. There is a reason throughout history great men (and occasionally women) have had offspring who grow up without pushback and then squander it all. I've tried to set enough 'challenge' fir my kids despite not needing too, but I worry it's not enough.

On the other hand I do know some personalities who use their trauma as an excuse, so I'm not sure, aggregate, how that impacts 'people' although I'd agree it's not as cut and dry as that author would like it to be. 

[Lizard Queen]

That factor is called resiliency, and other articles/studies have stressed its importance.
Eh, This study touched upon it in one question, but seemed to be trying to measure something else, which is fine. Studies don't have to all focus on the same thing. The survey was probably a misnomer, though. Should have probably been called, "born on 3rd base-ness".

(Oh, and 70 for me.)

[giramomma]

I got a 70 too.

But it didn't really measure any of the reasons why we aren't movin' on up like the Jeffersons.

I suppose it dinged me because I've always worked two jobs. But, it didn't ask "Do you have to, or do you want to?" That's a big difference. Want to might suggest different things than have to.

I only perceived one real negative....and that was my parents' behaviors.

I really don't consider the fact that I'm not generally inspired by others to be a detriment. Truthfully, taking care of myself/family is enough for me to concentrate on.

[zibazinski]

67

[yogiii]

74 - which seems high.  I didn't have a traumatic childhood but I think it stems from my personality. I could have said no college I'm working at the mall and that would have been fine.  Everything I did was of my own doing.  No real expectations, no life changing mentors.

[Deleted]

67  Not sure what it really means though.

[swamp]

Jun 4, 2017 6:23:18 GMT -5 milee said:

Another factor that is critical to success but that this author (and most others) seem to ignore is a person's willingness to live with pain. Most successful people I know (not just financially successful but athletes, etc) regularly make the conscious decision to continue with their efforts despite pain. Whether it's the broken toe they tape up and continue playing, the all nighters they pull to get their work done or just continuing to function when their entire world is on fire, they decide to keep on. That is not the same thing as not feeling pain. They feel the same pain, tiredness, hopelessness... but make the decision to play through.

That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I got a 56.  I've lived a relatively charmed life.  I know it, and I don't pretend my success is all on me.  

[swamp]

Jun 3, 2017 23:35:34 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

So, what are we supposed to learn from this?  And how are we supposed to respond?  Does this mean that we should force people to demonstrate that they will be good, capable parents before we let the have kids?  Or something else?

The point is that success isn't totally related to your own efforts.   You won't be successful if you don't work for it (most of the time), but that fact that you grew up in a safe neighborhood, went to good schools, with supportive non addict, no abusive parents, good neighbors, and always had enough to eat makes it easier to succeed. 

[daisy]

I scored a 60 - doesn't surprise me.  Both of my parents held graduate degrees and pushed for higher education.  We lived in an affluent suburb and they stayed together for most of my childhood. Our neighborhood was not diverse at all (affluent Roman Catholic) so I'm not sure if that counted against me or not.  My father was verbally abusive (child of an old-school alcoholic Catholic) but I learned coping skills because most of the other kids I knew had the same kind of dad.  We always had awesome family vacations touring the US and we spent a lot of time in museums and art galleries and had plenty of food on the table so I'm sure that contributed to my adult well-being. 

I am the black sheep of the family - both siblings also have graduate degrees and I have only an AA, but I've spent my life as a writer and now an entrepreneur so at least I'm not a 'bad' black sheep.  

The only real black mark I encountered on the survey was the major heath issue.  I was in my first semester of nursing school (BSN) when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer - that derailed my entire life as the chemo caused a carotid artery dissection, which lead to my inability to remember anything not written down in front of me.  Which makes it really difficult to take a test on calculating infusion rates for IV drips etc....hence, my bouncing around from office job to office job in the years since.  Now that I've discovered my passion and become self-employed - as long as the people of Wisconsin (and via the internet, in LA, CA, TN etc.)  buy soap and bath bombs, I'm making bank. 

Interesting survey - I'm going to share it on FB and see how my friends and family score. 

[quince]

70.  I think it mistakenly scored having my mom divorced from my bio dad as a negative factor. We also didn't have enough money, but it is AMAZING  what a single parent motivated to shield her kids from hardships can accomplish.  

[swamp]

Jun 4, 2017 11:28:52 GMT -5 quince said:

70.  I think it mistakenly scored having my mom divorced from my bio dad as a negative factor. We also didn't have enough money, but it is AMAZING  what a single parent motivated to shield her kids from hardships can accomplish.  

No, all single moms are lazy, welfare queens scamming their escalades, acrylic nails, and coach bags from the teat of Uncle Sam.

[quince]

Man, even if I did get all those things as a single mom from Uncle Sam, I would want him to throw in some free daycare too before I took on the task of handling kids by myself all the time!

[NoNamePerson]

I got 70. But I didn't answer any question on the family make up page. Not one question applied to me Long story

[Tiny]

Jun 4, 2017 10:24:04 GMT -5 swamp said:

Jun 3, 2017 23:35:34 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

So, what are we supposed to learn from this?  And how are we supposed to respond?  Does this mean that we should force people to demonstrate that they will be good, capable parents before we let the have kids?  Or something else?

The point is that success isn't totally related to your own efforts.   You won't be successful if you don't work for it (most of the time), but that fact that you grew up in a safe neighborhood, went to good schools, with supportive non addict, no abusive parents, good neighbors, and always had enough to eat makes it easier to succeed. 

I'd add that you can be missing one or two of those things and still succeed.   (I think this is where the idea of "it's takes a village" came from)

[swasat]

67 for me as well. 

I, too, am not surprised.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jun 3, 2017 22:44:53 GMT -5 busymom said:

I scored 70, which means more things working against me than for me.  


(A bit surprised, but then, I've never been the type to give up.)  

I got a 70 too.

Thought it was a bit dumb, actually. Sorry, Ava.

[Waffle]

63 - I found a lot of the questions to be very subjective and really could have supported going either way on some of them, which would of course have impacted my score.

[Phoenix84]

The quiz didn't work for me, wouldn't let me check any of the boxes.  Maybe it'll work later.

Many things worked in my favor but I had to overcome a few things. Specifically a learning disability and visual impairment.

My Asperger's continues to affect me to this day as far as social interactions go.