President Barack Obama misidentified the American Dream in his State of the Union address. He said we must “restore the basic bargain that built this country, the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead.”

American prosperity was not built on work for a guaranteed reward. It was built on freedom. No government can protect individuals’ freedom to succeed without also allowing the freedom to fail.

For sure, hard work measures one’s determination to succeed, but it does not measure success. Success is measured by how well one meets demand in the free market.

If an American can produce a good or service that other people want or need, then she is successful. If an American can develop skills to meet job market demand, than he is successful.

Although hard work is often a means to success, it is never an end in itself, because hard work with no purpose creates no value.

The only way to measure the value of work is with free markets. Hence, in America, the ability to meet market demand is the primary measure of success.

Fittingly, the American Dream is that every American — regardless of gender, race and creed — has the freedom to operate in the market however he or she chooses.

Thomas Jefferson called this “the pursuit of happiness.”

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

A Greek immigrant thought after first seeing the Statue of Liberty in 1919: “Give me a chance to prove that I am worth it, to do something, to become somebody in America.”

The American Dream is having the freedom to prove our worth. It is not reward for our effort but reward for the value created by adapting our efforts. Freedom uniquely allows each of us to adapt our own pursuits toward success.

Hence, the American Dream is freedom.

Michael Stikkel is a junior computer engineering major and MBA candidate in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected].

Published on February 18, 2013 at 2:14 am