In life it is a dream shared by many to live in a big fancy mansions, houses and high rise apartments.

In this essay Michael Lewis discusses his ideologies about living the life of Riley. How given the chance people who may not be able to afford these upscale mansions and homes try anyway in a desperate attempt to live as the elite. In this essay Lewis tells the story of his upper middle class family moving from California back to ew !rleans. Lewis was originally from ew !rleans and wanted to return so that the he could finish a book he needed to complete. Lewis starts the essay e"plaining that he hails from the upper middle class # $he way he was saying e"plained that its a modest way to say, i do very well for my self%. It is how he lived his whole life since being a child knowing he was well off. He tells us that the upper middle class is now a non&e"istent rank, because there is a 'space between classes(. $hrough this Lewis shows us that due to the market these days, there is no longer an upper middle class. $he gap between the middle class and the rich has become a chasm that many cannot bridge. )erhaps the only few able to *ump this gap are the few who win the lottery, its said you have more of a chance of getting stuck by lighting twice, then wining once. Lewis surprises his family by never revealing there new home until the day they moved in. He purposely drove up and down +t Charles ,venue asking the children to guess which house would be there ne"t home. -pon arriving at there new home the kids where ecstatic, almost hyperventilating as they entered their new palace. $hrough reading this segment of the story, we see the children taking to their new circumstances very easily. How when the tour bus on +t Charles +treet went by they would entertain them by dressing to the ma" and dancing on the broken fountain. .hile reading this essay Lewis speaks of terms and statistics leading you to believe that he was a smart man. /ut through further reading you see he does not bother to even ask the rental price on this home before he moves in. He seemed almost oblivious to the amount of e"cess rooms and electronics that this house was e0uipped with. ,s if the price of the rent wasn1t enough, he was bombarded with staggering

bills like water, gas and electric that totaled well over five thousand more on top of the rent. .hen he told people the price he was paying for his new house, people he knew treated him as if he had *ust been diagnosed with a deadly disease. )eople he had *ust met would ask for a hand out thinking he had the finances to rent a house like this, so he must be able to afford giving money to charities. $he thing that strike me as odd people ask him for hand outs and charities but you would never go to some one like trump and ask him for money. )erhaps rich people like *ay&2 perhaps not care how much a home is, is 3normal3 for them. 4or the the average man which he stats he5s closer to it seem he to like to play being filthy rick. '$he problems posed by mansions were different from the problems posed by most other houses(. +ome of these problems were locating your loved ones, fi"ing a house of this si2e, maintaining the grounds. Lewis called his house not *ust a house but also a tool used to rank him. )eople who see these homes whether they be from this country or another believe the man living in the big house is living the dream. .hat they don1t see is the man struggling to pay his bills, keep his house maintained, and keeping the appearance of the rank they bestow upon him. Lewis was living the ,merican 6ream even though he was born here in ,merica. 7ven though he had the big house and the loving family, as the story went on could you really say that the house made him happy8 He e"perienced inconveniences that put a bad taste is his mouth and had him considering moving back to California. .ho is to say the ,merican 6ream has you in a big house, why can1t you have a moderate si2e home and feel complete8 ,lthough don1t knock it until you try it9 '$he ,merican dream is a set ideal in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, in an upward social mobility achieved through hard work(. #http:;;wikipedia.org;wiki;american<dream%. $he ,merican dream branches off from the 6eclaration of Independence. $he portion of the Independence that relates directly to the ,merican 6ream is ',ll men are created e0ual(. $he ,merican 6ream by =ames $ruslow ,dams in

>?@> 'Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievements regardless of social class and circumstances of birth(. $he idea of the ,merican 6ream has changed over the course of time. It now includes personnel input as well as a global one. $he wealth or the median net worth of ,merican households is varied due to race, gender, education and geographic location. ow that the baby boomers are cresting at the highs of their careers the number of wealthy is on the incline. $his means more and more people are achieving the ,merican dream. )eople from other countries come to ,merica for the chance that they may achieve the ,merican dream too. Many do achieve this, though many ,mericans say its impossible, but the people coming here, sure would like a hotel si2e home and a volt full of money. .ho wouldn1t they are also happy having a nice home and good *ob. $here are many levels to the american dream, its *ust up to the person making that dream.