I really loved this comment from /u/UtridRagnarson on Reddit:
I have been reading Horatio Alger novels to my sons and I think he captures the phenomenon quite well. Every one of his books is roughly the same. Some naturally talented young person is living in poverty. The young person meets respectable upper class or upper middle class people who recognize his talent and encourage him to apply himself. They also give him important information for "moving up in the world." Then the young protagonist rises economically and socially.
People on the left in Alger time and later lampoon this as unrealistic and idealistic. Ironically, though, our contemporary society is actually crueler than a leftist caricature of gilded age America. Horatio Alger protagonists work as boot blacks, match boys, or news boys making small sums of money in an entrepreneurial way. All of these jobs are basically illegal because of various regulatory constraints, tax requirements, and labor regulations. All protagonists live in boarding houses where a tiny room with no amenities could be rented for a very small amount of money. Such boarding houses are illegal almost everywhere now. Horatio Alger protagonists live in areas where they mix with business people like NYC. Now educated elites are concentrated in exclusionary suburbs, unaffordable elite cities, or car infrastructure inaccessible to the poor. It's hard to imagine any cross-class mentorship happening. Educated elites, when they go to church at all, attend churches in their suburbs that a poor young person living in a nonexistent boarding house would have difficulty reaching. Maybe we mix on the internet, but such interactions are largely impersonal and anonymous.
The one area where we surpass Alger is in education. Horatio Alger boys study at night or engage tutors to improve themselves educationally. However our education system is also rather isolating. Students learn in groups of exact age peers. We obsess about how to make sure these peer groups are as good an influence as possible because they are doing a lot of the work of acculturating our children. We don't have bosses and coworkers introducing children to adult life, only other children. Their only adult contact is with teachers who are, themselves, isolated from career opportunities and the functioning of the economy outside their (often dysfunctional) bureaucracy. In Alger novels, education is a way to show that you are conscientious and gentile, not a path to success in and of itself. It's also something precious and chosen, not something force on bored children as a form of child-care.
In the end, I think we are hypocrites. We laugh at rags to riches stories as outdated or part of a toxic pull yourself up by your bootstraps narrative. Meanwhile our own institutions are significantly worse. They deny the old channels for upward acculturation and economic mobility while failing to provide anything to replace them.
I really loved this comment from /u/UtridRagnarson on Reddit:
I have been reading Horatio Alger novels to my sons and I think he captures the phenomenon quite well. Every one of his books is roughly the same. Some naturally talented young person is living in poverty. The young person meets respectable upper class or upper middle class people who recognize his talent and encourage him to apply himself. They also give him important information for "moving up in the world." Then the young protagonist rises economically and socially.
People on the left in Alger time and later lampoon this as unrealistic and idealistic. Ironically, though, our contemporary society is actually crueler than a leftist caricature of gilded age America. Horatio Alger protagonists work as boot blacks, match boys, or news boys making small sums of money in an entrepreneurial way. All of these jobs are basically illegal because of various regulatory constraints, tax requirements, and labor regulations. All protagonists live in boarding houses where a tiny room with no amenities could be rented for a very small amount of money. Such boarding houses are illegal almost everywhere now. Horatio Alger protagonists live in areas where they mix with business people like NYC. Now educated elites are concentrated in exclusionary suburbs, unaffordable elite cities, or car infrastructure inaccessible to the poor. It's hard to imagine any cross-class mentorship happening. Educated elites, when they go to church at all, attend churches in their suburbs that a poor young person living in a nonexistent boarding house would have difficulty reaching. Maybe we mix on the internet, but such interactions are largely impersonal and anonymous.
The one area where we surpass Alger is in education. Horatio Alger boys study at night or engage tutors to improve themselves educationally. However our education system is also rather isolating. Students learn in groups of exact age peers. We obsess about how to make sure these peer groups are as good an influence as possible because they are doing a lot of the work of acculturating our children. We don't have bosses and coworkers introducing children to adult life, only other children. Their only adult contact is with teachers who are, themselves, isolated from career opportunities and the functioning of the economy outside their (often dysfunctional) bureaucracy. In Alger novels, education is a way to show that you are conscientious and gentile, not a path to success in and of itself. It's also something precious and chosen, not something force on bored children as a form of child-care.
In the end, I think we are hypocrites. We laugh at rags to riches stories as outdated or part of a toxic pull yourself up by your bootstraps narrative. Meanwhile our own institutions are significantly worse. They deny the old channels for upward acculturation and economic mobility while failing to provide anything to replace them.
DO YOU NOT WANT MORE MONEY
U GOTTA MAKE THE ARTICLE MORE ACCESSIBLE, I LOOK AT THEN GRAPHS AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. PLEASE EXPLAIN THINGS IN MORE SIMPLE TERMS
Just put the fries in the bag lil bro.