Thoughts on The American Dream

Ok so what the hell is the American dream. To be able to struggle most of your life to live and then eventually be able to have a family without going into debt too much? My mom especially confuses me because she always talks about how she had like 3 jobs and worked her body to the bone waitressing, yet she believes in it because she has a house and family now? Like I feel that maybe people shouldn't have to do that? Like peoples standards are too low? That really must be it actually. Usually when I bring up something bad about America they respond with "well it's better than that one authoritarian country." People are so propagandized that they lower their standards for what's good in a country. Maybe Im just being chauvinistic but I think a country like America, with what it does produce, should be able to give the basic necessities of life. Or last least not make people work 3 jobs for them. I do have to look back up on myself and realize that the conditions of workers in America is better than a lot of underdeveloped countries, but it just bugs me when people think America is all that because of the "opportunity" to live. There are a lot of people in America who do have it pretty rough unfortunately.