Sweeping the streets can often be a city government job in the United States which generally come with decent benefits like partially subsidized health care premiums, paid time off programs, retirement plans with company match money and even pension programs which is far less common nowadays in the private sector but quite valuable. A job preference for a typical American be it clerical, blue collar or something else would depend on that individual's real life context.

" It is fairly obvious to say that the great American Dream, with all it's hopes and aspirations has failed."

I don't think that dreams can fail, rather we wake up or move on to another dream. The major turning point in recent history I think was circa the 1960's from the sputnik to the man on the moon, the resistance the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement and the end of segregation, the martyrs, and of course Las Vegas. The new dream of hope, change, peace, love and drugs could not last long.

Vegas: how a dead place out in middle of the desert became an earth bound shooting star, a facet of the America dream which begat a surreal landscape designed by marketing people with little regard for history or anything else. 42 million annual visitors fantasize in its blare and neon glare. Vegas creates and destroys continually, mimicking the national/international whims of its designers.

Society is based on money and everyone's goal is to acquire as much as possible so they would go for the higher paid option. — René Descartes

Money is important, but it's not the only consideration. Social status is, arguably, more important than money for most.

[Delete] @Baden

What is your definition of social status and can you give an example as well please. — René Descartes

How well you're seen by others. For example, the profession of lawyer is typically well-regarded - so even if a lawyer makes less money than someone working in IT, they will have higher status - people will give them more importance.

[Delete] @Baden

Don't you think it is the fact that in our current society lawyers make more money than people in IT that they have a higher social status? — René Descartes

No, they don't make more money in all societies (at least not on average - top lawyers do generally make more than top people in IT pretty much everywhere).

[Delete] @Baden

Sure, but those earnings are reversed in third-world countries usually, where good IT developers earn more than lawyers on average (again, not more than top lawyers). And still, lawyers are given higher social status. These are social phenomena - the peasant from the countryside in third world countries has no clue what someone in IT does - but they do know what a lawyer does. It's an older profession and has accrued more respect over time.

Anyway, I'm sure social status does play a role but I still maintain that money is the key driver and holds more importance than status in the American dream. — René Descartes

For some, money is indeed more important.

[Delete] @Baden

Capitalism is the American nightmare, which has crushed all the dreams of ordinary Americans. It's just a pity they don't know it.
To maintain the so-called American Dream requires an intercessionry government bound to the values of that dream, and capable of creating the environment where the dream can be realised: NOT a government in the pockets of big money and corporate interests who conspire to place the burdens of the maintenance of that society on the people and away from themselves, even though they reap most of the rewards.