The American dream isn’t dead. Not by a long shot.

It’s true that a university education costs more than it used to, and it doesn’t provide job seekers with the competitive advantage it once did. This is because we’ve moved into an “information age” where knowledge workers constitute a much larger portion of the workforce. It’s also because a university education has become a coveted birthright for much of the United States’ middle class, and the resulting abundance of young, eager graduates entering the workforce each year diminishes the value of the education they worked so hard for.

Wealthy people have always had more control over our political climate than poor people. As far back as our republic has existed, wealthy people have skewed the political climate to their favor. In fact, there has not been a time in U.S. history when the vote was as accessible as it is now—a vote that does not distinguish based on color, race, gender, literacy, socioeconomic status or the ownership of land.

No, the American dream is alive and well. If anything has changed, it’s our cultural expectations of education, employment and the value of the dollar. And we have, for the most part, the middle class to blame for this; a middle class that has produced a generation of children who have been spoiled, coddled and fed a bunch of nonsense about equality and their inherent greatness. To quote Will McAvoy, the “Worst. Period. Generation. Period. Ever. Period.”

Education was indeed a part of what propelled the success of our parents and their parents too, but I believe the more-important common thread that determines success is a willingness to start at the bottom, to work hard and to overcome obstacles with creativity and determination. Past generations understood that careers weren’t earned by college degrees, but were instead built on a foundation of hard work, determination and sacrifice.

Our parents cultivated success at a time when many goods were still being manufactured nationally—before the widespread outsourcing of American manufacturing to offshore manufacturers. Our parents cultivated success at a time when kids didn’t expect to go off to college, and they certainly didn’t expect to do it with a brand new car and a credit card. It’s true that our parents—the product of parents who lived through the Great Depression—know far more than younger generations about living within their means.

They also had no notions about the “equal opportunity” piffle that the current President is going on about—more mindless nonsense to distract attention from his complete failure to comprehend the most fundamental aspects of economic common sense. The idea of “closing the income gap” is as ridiculous now as it was at any point in U.S. history and entirely antithetical to the dream of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Since when did it become the responsibility to people who cultivate success to fund those who are unable or unwilling to do the same?

Some people are better at certain things than others, and these people will cultivate more success in their careers. The sum of one’s abilities, one’s skills and one’s willingness to work define his or her potential and the free market values these contributions to society accordingly. “The system” is equal in that anyone can offer a product or service on the free market, and that’s as equal as it should be. “The pursuit of happiness” comes with no guarantee, and the freedom to pursue that happiness comes with the risk of failure. If someone wants more, they need to stop whining about inequality and meet the challenge head-on.

We’re afraid to talk about these difficult subjects now for fear of “stifling peoples’ creativity.” We’ve stopped inculcating a sense of competitiveness in people—a key driver for self-improvement. By telling our young people higher education is a birthright, we obliterate any sense of the privilege higher education represents. By coddling them from any possible failure or hurt or pain, we don’t give them the coping and adapting mechanisms that are so essential to laying the foundation of a good career.

No, the American dream is alive and well! The only question that remains to be seen is who from the up-and-coming generation will rise to the challenge. Who will take the risks, and who will cultivate their rewards accordingly? Who will refuse to make excuses about why something can’t be done and, instead, find new and innovative ways to make their dreams come true?

And like every generation that came before, these leaders will epitomize the American dream.