Family Businesses and the American Dream

Some family businesses in the United States have survived for more than a century, but their owners say entrepreneurship no longer guarantees the same upward mobility it once did. The article focuses on long-running businesses whose founders once used business ownership as a path to independence and stability.

Starr Hutchings Purdue co-runs Hutchings Funeral Home in Macon, Georgia, which her great-grandfather opened in 1910. For earlier generations, owning the business brought freedom and enough financial success to educate the family. Today, however, the funeral industry is more competitive and expensive, so the business no longer creates the same level of upward mobility.

The article argues that this change is not limited to one company. Entrepreneurship has long been seen as a classic route to the American Dream, yet many present-day small-business owners struggle to become better off than their parents. Some still own homes, cars and respected companies, but their money does not stretch as far as it once did.

M&S Schmalberg, a 110-year-old fabric-flower business in New York, shows this contradiction clearly. The company is profitable and its flowers appear in fashion and television, yet co-owner Adam Brand says his house is smaller than the one he grew up in. Factory rent has also risen sharply, making business success feel less financially transformative.

Ric Serrano’s family business in Arizona also shows how older companies must adapt. Serrano’s began as a dry-goods store in 1919, became a department store and later turned into a Mexican restaurant chain. At its peak it had eight locations, but now it has two. Serrano says higher wages, rising costs and customers cutting back on dining out have made growth extremely difficult.

Not every story in the article is negative. David Judson, who runs a Los Angeles stained-glass studio founded by his family, says he is building rather than merely keeping up. By moving into contemporary art and public projects, he has found new sources of revenue and kept control over the business.

The article ends by suggesting that the American Dream is not only about money. For some owners, preserving a family legacy, controlling their own work and having flexibility still matter deeply. But if small businesses no longer provide broad social mobility, the shared cultural promise of building a better future may weaken.

In this context, hopefulness means the belief that people can build a better future for themselves and their children, even when the path to upward mobility has become more difficult.