To Afford "The American Dream," Most Americans Would Have To Be Awake All Day

 There is a reason "The American Dream" seems more unachievable with each passing month year:

How much does it cost to live the American Dream? More than most of us can afford, according to two recent studies.

A household would have to spend more than $150,000 a year to live the dream in 29 of the 50 states, according to an analysis published in April by the personal finance site GOBankingRates.

According to the report, the optimal American lifestyle would cost $137,842 a year in Ohio, $147,535 in Texas, $159,932 in Florida, $194,067 in New York and $245,723 in California.

And how, exactly, does one quantify the American Dream?

GOBankingRates defines the dream as getting married, raising two children and owning a home, a car and a pet. (You can almost imagine them tooling around in one of those little plastic cars from the Game of Life.)

The site ran the numbers for every state, factoring in a mortgage, annual healthcare costs, utilities, education, groceries, pets and childcare. After tallying the expenses, researchers doubled them, to account for discretionary spending and savings.

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Another report, released in December by the financial media site Investopedia, estimates what the American Dream costs across an entire lifetime: $3.4 million.

That is a staggering sum, Investopedia observes, considering what the average American earns in a lifetime: about $2.3 million.

The reason? The cost of living outpaces disposable income; that is, things cost more and people aren't being paid enough to keep up with the increase. And for people to argue that rising costs is not the problem of those making those decisions and that the consumers should just take a second/third/fourth job or "cut out frivolities" like eating breakfast or having a car that less than ten years old or dwelling in a living space no bigger than the average CEO's office is showing a grand misunderstanding of the problem.