Many have studied the American Dream. Few of those researchers have also lived it.
Born in Uruguay and raised across four countries — Uruguay, Israel, Bolivia, and Ecuador — Gonzalo Schwarz came to the United States for graduate school and never left. He drove for Uber to keep his dream of starting a think tank alive. Today he runs one of the most distinctive research institutions in the country, which he calls his own American Dream.
Welcome to Episode 8 of From Ideas to Innovation.
There is a striking gap in how Americans think about the American Dream. Gallup has found that less than half of Americans believe everyone in the country has the opportunity to achieve it. But flip the question and ask people about their own lives: 67% say they've either achieved the American Dream or are actively on their way, and 71% say they have similar or more opportunity than their parents.
Even more surprising, this uniquely American ideal may be the common ground we've been searching for in today's polarized political climate. 64% of Americans believe the Dream can still unite people across different backgrounds and politics.
As we celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary, it's fitting to explore this distinctly American ideal. If it's still alive and well, as the data suggests, can we elevate that truth to reinvigorate national pride, unity, and drive our nation's future forward?
About This Episode’s Guest
Gonzalo Schwarz is the founder and president of the Archbridge Institute and, full disclosure, my boss. But he didn’t set out to start a think tank. He started by examining how to solve poverty.
When Gonzalo came to the United States for a master’s degree in economics at George Mason University, he found more than simply a better education. He was struck by the spirit of this country where entrepreneurship was celebrated, ambition was admired, and the promise of a better life wasn’t just a slogan.
He fell in love with that idea. Then he noticed that most Americans were taking it for granted, or giving up on it entirely.
After working at the Atlas Network, where he helped coach think tanks around the world on strategy and communications, Gonzalo made the leap. In 2016, he founded the Archbridge Institute to research the economics, psychology, and culture of human flourishing and social mobility. The early years were hard: there were payroll crises, half-salaries, and a stretch where he drove for Uber to make ends meet.
Still, he kept going. And as he’d be the first to tell you, that’s the whole point.
This year, Archbridge celebrates its tenth anniversary. Gonzalo joins the podcast to reflect on what makes America unique, share insights from our recent American Dream Snapshot survey, and weigh in on what he still sees as unfinished business for the American Dream as an idea.
What You’ll Take Away
Why social mobility — not income inequality — should be the central frame for economic policy debates
What a Disney reveals about the American Dream as a cultural ethos and how it shaped Archbridge’s founding mission
The surprising finding from Archbridge’s American Dream Snapshot
Why more Americans define the dream as freedom of choice — and very few define it as becoming wealthy
What native-born Americans take for granted about the American Dream that immigrants almost never do
Why Argentina has the most momentum of any Latin American country toward its own version of the American Dream
Cross-Sector Connection
Gonzalo isn't just a researcher studying human flourishing. He's an intellectual entrepreneur who built an institution around it. And his story illuminates what happens when the worlds of ideas, policy, and lived experience collide.
Researchers and academics can find in Gonzalo's story a model for identifying a gap in the intellectual market and building something to fill it. When he founded Archbridge, most free market organizations dismissed the inequality debate rather than engaging it. Gonzalo's insight was that social mobility was a more accurate, hopeful, and persuasive frame, so he built his think tank around exploring that gap.
Policymakers are operating in a landscape of pessimism about our nation's future. But the American Dream Snapshot is one of the few surveys that asks Americans about their own experience of the dream rather than their perception of an abstract concept. The difference in the results has direct implications for how policymakers communicate about opportunity, mobility, and the role of government.
Business leaders and entrepreneurs may recognize themselves in Gonzalo's founding story. He had just bought a house and had two young kids when he left a stable job to start something he believed in. The struggle of those early years may be relatable. But his determination to keep going because he believed in the idea is the blueprint for how most meaningful organizations are built.
Final Thoughts
People think of the American Dream as purely personal — your hustle, your vision, your success. But when Archbridge asks survey respondents who helped them achieve it, almost everyone names someone: a mentor, a teacher, a family member, a neighbor. The dream is individual in its pursuit but communal in its foundation.
That framing matters. Because the laboratory of ideas isn’t just about getting researchers, policymakers, and business leaders in the same room. It’s about recognizing that the conditions for flourishing and achieving the dream are built together, even when they’re pursued alone.
Gonzalo built Archbridge on that belief. I’m glad I get to be part of what comes next.
For more on the American Dream Snapshot and what the data tells us about the state of the dream at 250 years, check out my recent piece over at Debunking Degrowth.
Next Time…
I hope you’ll tune in for my next conversation released in two weeks.
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