The Price of the American Dream | Trapped in the American Dream
Video Overview & Insights
The Price of the American Dream - Despite years of economic growth after the 2009 financial crisis, millions of Americans remain trapped in a silent struggle. This documentary uncovers the reality of the “working poor”—people holding multiple jobs yet barely making ends meet. While the nation celebrates job creation and recovery, nearly 47 million citizens face daily hardship, unstable wages, and rising living costs. Through personal stories and economic analysis, the film exposes the human side of America’s prosperity gap and questions what true recovery really means.
Inordinate fear indeed… 🤢
The Price of the American Dream (2016)
Director: Hélène Eckmann
My experience working in America over 3 summer seasons makes me know that this entire documentary is based on facts.
The crazy thing is, for people coming from other countries and going to America, just the earning potential alone is worth it. I can make my home country's minimum wage for a 40-hour work week in less than 8 hours at the right job. Literally. A 40-hour work week is $107 USD at minimum wage in my home country. It works out to $17,000 in my money. So a company worker, working a minimum of 40 hours, goes home with USD $107 a week (JMD 17,000).
One job I had, which was paying $15 an hour during COVID, could have had me make that after 7 hours. $15 x 7 = $105.
In 7 hours working at a grill in the back of a mc'ds i'm making the 40 hours equivalent effort in my country. It's perspectives like that which make me understand these people more. Fighting for a chance to earn in a currency with more financial weight.
There is no doubt that America is a land of opportunities, but the realities of actually living there are a completely different story.
Stars / Featured People: Germania
Genre: Documentary — Current Affairs / Social Issues
Her son’s name is “Pedro Fernández.” 😅 Haha, what an icon.
Country (Production): France
Language: English
I feel sorry for this workers and people trying to survive under hard conditions. Here in Brazil things are hard as well.
Also Known As: “The Working Poor | The Price of the American Dream”
Release Date / Year: 2016
A majority of these people probably voted Republic which is a vote against their own best interest. It makes it impossible to have any sympathy for them.
Filming Locations: United States
Synopsis
The amount of brainwashing and being proud to be American is out of reach. As a side watcher born in Europe I can't fathom how a person can say they will die for their country which leaves them poor and broken. It does not make any sense....😮.
Since the 2009 economic crisis, over nine million jobs have been created in America. Officially, the recession is over — yet 46.7 million Americans live in poverty, about 15% of the U.S. population. Many of them aren’t unemployed; they are the working poor, often holding at least two jobs to make ends meet.
The documentary introduces us to individuals such as Germania, who works two minimum-wage jobs (around 18 hours a day) and struggles to support her children and mother-in-law in a tiny motel room. Another story follows Joe and Chelsie, who live in a tent in a church carpark with their daughters, sharing a porta-potty with dozens of others. Also featured is Scott Slawson, a long-time GE worker whose job is threatened by relocation to a much lower-wage state. Through these personal stories, the film sheds light on how many Americans are contributing to the country’s “recovery” while remaining extremely vulnerable.
This is what welfare states, illegal immigrants and illegal economies build. The rich get rich. The politicians get rich. Every body else suffers.
Chapters:
00:00 – The Hidden Face of America’s Job Boom
Such a mismatch between income and prices. Really scary and discouraging.
Many of the new jobs celebrated in the U.S. recovery hide a harsher reality: multiple part-time roles, unstable hours, and families living in cheap motels near Disney despite working full-time.
07:05 – Living on the Edge: Motels, Night Shifts and Survival
I won't be doing this in 2030!!
Tired of the rat race.....getting my finances right..invest!!
Families navigate exhaustion, night shifts, and the impossibility of affording stable housing. Long hours, food insecurity, and constant stress define the daily rhythm of the working poor.
14:20 – The New Poor: Families Without a Home
Your choice
America’s “new poor” includes thousands of full-time workers raising children in motels, parking lots, or makeshift shelters. Homelessness among children has doubled since the economic downturn.
20:50 – Chasing Opportunity: The Move to Prosperous Cities
Y'allistan is not a civilised country.
People migrate to booming cities like Seattle, only to find rents so high that they end up sleeping in cars or tent camps. Children change schools, families break apart, and stability feels unattainable.
27:00 – The Collapse of the Middle Class: Factories, Unions and Outsourcing
Why dont these people make money and explore investment opportunities in Africa or settle here where 10 dollars can last 3 days
Industrial jobs vanish as companies move production to cheaper, non-union states. Lifelong workers are laid off despite decades of service, symbolizing the erosion of the American middle class.
34:30 – The War on Unions and the New Rules of Corporate America
Question?😮 where is them kids father? Ex mother in law? What kind of SON she raised? Very common in Puerto 🇵🇷 Rico or The Dr lots kids a young age then blame the government 🤔
Union power collapses from one in three workers to one in ten. Corporations grow more profitable, while employees lose bargaining power, stability, and any real path back to middle-class life.
41:20 – The Forgotten Americans: After the Crisis, No Way Back
One word: ARMY
Some families secure temporary housing; others fall back into tent cities. The American Dream survives for a privileged few, while millions pay the human cost of a recovery that never reached them.
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At least she looks professional with her neck tattoo
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When was this filmed it seems old but still so true
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#finance #documentaries #economy #WorkingPoor #USEconomy #IncomeInequality
😂😂😂 probably should head north... so fake. where kent or bellview
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Go eork in Setac, call laborworks.
More User Perspectives
I hope she is doing much better 17 years on :(
@CocoYazmin07I’m never complaining again. We love u and hope things get better.
@jaybanner-m4mThe difference between you guys and Africa is that when life becomes hard in the cities in Africa, people can go back to their villages in their lands. You guys don't own lands.
@raquel7123Where is the father is what I want to know... is the father even paying child support?? Probably not
@bribri6985Im so glad Germania got hers , she deserves it. She works HARD 💪🏿
@aka_4ever8:20 These companies are awful. Where are the unions fighting for worker rights? I blame Ronald Reagan
@MickyWigley5:53 this often happens. We think the grass will be greener and it ends up being a terrible decision
@MickyWigleyIt is absolutely disgusting that pay hasn’t increased by much and only did bc COVID affected the job market, and the legal minimum wage is still the same at least in PA it is. This country should be ashamed for that.
@Lauren-v1kJoseph pisoff of Michael sleeping with man but berry Girdon was sleeping with tido while is married is daughter
@SabidersonJeanHio ndio America! Ni mbaaya.
@stevejumasjNothing to do is nerve racking
@TrianaCasterlowThis channel is amazing. I've subscribed!
@zoyablake9538I lived in the US as a child during the late 80s until the mid 90s, I am so thankful that I live in Europe now...
@carinarodriguez8253😢 bless her heart
@MarinaGladson"How am I goin feed my kids?" ..by not having them when u cant afford them. That was a choice
@elhar5966I get how expensive things are but we also have tons of people who go to flordia, california, washington, and NYC and complain about how expensive it is lol like duh you went to the MOST expensive places possible in america.
@FIBERFARIESThe same happens in every country in the world
@tristanmason7405If Germanic works two jobs how is she only making $8,50 an hour?
@tristanmason7405Wait so when that mother and law left who’s watching the kids when mom is working
@ExplosiveburritoI remember working 3 jobs in the early 2000s. It takes a toll. Now I have multiple sclerosis. Since those 3 jobs, I got both BS and MPH degrees. Worked professionally, but now permanently disabled.
@MzWeeyumzSaya pikir seperti tidak ada tuhan di dunia ini untuk orang tidak berutung
@Anang48Yoga48Pengen lungo ko omah aku. Tf duit kerjo keluarga ,kangen ,melihat dunia seperti mimpi saya dapat melakukannya imposible
@Anang48Yoga48could use stronger currencies around world greater purchasing power for affordable prices that also increase trade by making exports more affordable lowering trade and budget deficits governments banks investors can use some of monetary stimulus from low Federal Reserve federal funds interest rates to purchase government bonds of other nations helps them with government spending and reduce debt as well as stronger currencies purchasing power
@katyruscheinski1661Here in Atlanta Mickey D's pays 15 an hour😮
@TanikaHELMI hope this channel shows how poor people have achieved success and the American dream because there are tons of those stories as well.
@fortgrove3166Any updates with her now? I hope she’s not struggling anymore she desereved better shes very hard working.
@doritosreeseflakesUS is overrated
@TheKachumbariTrump
@punkie9900The american dream
@DellyDocumentary9.50 too low no way
@Glamourgirlxo8These big businesses are treating you exactly like what you are which is a cog in the wheel you are nothing more than a cog you are not the wheel the wheel will continue to turn without you because there is millions of other cogs out there to fill your role but there is only a few other businesses out there that could provide a bunch of cogs like you with a job. So yes they have all the power and you are the subject to their will.
@tamihodge8998