So to answer these questions, I surveyed highly educated, professional individuals via Survey Monkey on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Over 40 LinkedIn groups were asked to participate in the survey. In addition, conversations started about the American Dream in different LinkedIn groups and several individuals were interviewed.

Let’s see the results, but first let’s compare the Great Depression (1930-1933) or the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the Great Recession (2007-2009) with the Stock Market Crash of March 6th, 2009, whereby the DJIA had dropped 54% to 6,469 (before beginning to recover) from its peak of 14,164 on October 9th, 2007, a span of 17 months.