The American dream is an age-old concept that anyone can attain success in the U.S. if they work hard enough. As of 2024, Pew Research Center found that 53% of Americans thought that “dream” was still possible.
Ben Quach, 75, is a Vietnamese refugee who’s living proof. But it wasn’t an easy road to get there.
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Still, Quach’s grit and determination helped him build a successful business from the ground up.
“I don’t give up,” Quach told KGW8, who profiled him recently.
An incredible success story
Quach is the founder of QB Fabrication in Clackamas, Oregon. As the company’s website says, it’s the "largest producer of steel lattice towers in the Pacific Northwest," with a facility spanning about 4.5 acres that’s capable of producing more than 500,000 pounds per month.
But Quach had to come a long way to reach this point. As KGW8 reported, he arrived in the U.S. at 26 with his wife and children as a Vietnamese refugee after the Vietnam War ended speaking little English.
In 1978, he lived in an apartment that cost $125 a month. He went to Clark College and picked up jobs as he could, virtually either working or studying all the time. At one point, he had a job as a hotel janitor making $3.25 an hour.
Fortunately, a man who owned a gas station nearby saw him and offered him a broken-down car that he fixed, which helped him get to work and school.
He later got a welding job at a shipyard paying $10.50 an hour, and that’s where his luck started to change for the better.
With his first check, he bought his kids their first TV. He kept saving and eventually came up with $13,000 to put down on a home.
"I worked two jobs. My wife worked two jobs," Quach recalled.
But Quach wanted to start his own business, so he used his home as collateral and worked out of his backyard.
One year right before Christmas, he didn’t get paid for a job. He told his wife there was no money and they couldn’t buy Christmas presents.
Needing to clear his head, he went for a drive on Interstate 84 and saw power lines. At that moment, he knew that power lines were what he wanted to make.
He went around trying to find work, and smaller jobs eventually turned into larger ones. He told the Bonneville Power Administration to call him day or night with opportunities, which they did.
One of his earliest jobs was a $5,000 job. He later scored a $37,000 job and then one for $300,000 after beating out larger companies — only for that big job, he didn’t have the money to buy materials.
"I had to apply for 10 credit cards," he told KGW8.
Quach continued to beat out big companies and get business, relying mostly on word of mouth. Now, at 75, he owns a successful company and is the American dream personified.
"Never give up. Thank you for America give me the chance to make this business happen. My American dream has come true," Quach said.
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The price of the American dream
Though Quach is clearly a roaring success story, not everyone gets to achieve the American dream. Investopedia puts the cost of the American dream at an astounding $4.4 million, roughly broken down as follows:
- Retirement: $1.6 million
- Owning new cars: $811,000
- Having a wedding: $44,000
- Raising and putting two children through college: $832,000
- Owning a home: $930,000
- Having pets: $37,000
- Taking a yearly vacation: $179,000
- Paying for a funeral: $8,500
In 2021, Georgetown University found that workers with a bachelor’s degree in the 25th percentile of earnings make $1.9 million in their lifetime, while those in the 75th percentile earn $4.1 million.
This tells us that even higher earners who attend college may not reach the $4.4 million threshold needed to attain all of the goals listed above. And this may partly be because, through the years, living costs have outpaced wages.
It’s no wonder, then, that 41% of Americans think the American dream is no longer achievable despite it having been attainable in the past, according to Pew Research Center data, while 6% of Americans think it was never possible in the first place.
Interestingly, Pew reports that Americans ages 50 and older are more likely to say that the American dream is still attainable. Meanwhile, younger Americans have a less positive outlook, perhaps due to a unique series of lived events.
Many millennials, for example, graduated college with piles of debt only to face a sluggish job market thanks to the Great Recession, which spanned 2007 to 2009. That led to a period of sluggish interest rates and a generally slow economic recovery.
Roughly a decade later, the pandemic hit, causing a massive unemployment crisis. And while lawmakers were able to come to the rescue with stimulus checks, those policies spurred a years-long period of rampant inflation Americans are still grappling with today. It’s no wonder that so many people feel jaded in the context of the American dream.
Interestingly, the New York Times reports that the meaning of the American dream has evolved over time. In the 1930s and 1940s, the term didn’t refer to financial success or homeownership so much as intellect. In the 1950s, it referred to equality and freedom.
In the 1960s, the term became more widely used, popularized by Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. But in the 1970s and 1980s, home builders adopted the term in advertisements, where it came to be associated with owning a home. And from that point on, it’s been taken to mean attaining a certain level of financial success.
All told, Pew says that 31% of Americans think they’ve achieved the American dream, while 36% say they’re on their way.
But 30% say the American dream is out of reach. Those in that boat may want to take a page out of Quach’s book and, as he said, “never give up.”
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
