Rogerian Essay - the Myth of Horatio Alger

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I believe that the Alger myth exists and is in fact true. A quote from “The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans” says, “Household incomes rose dramatically from 1967 to 2014…” This quote shows that the economy is becoming more wealthy. With the economy becoming more prosperous, that means that there has been some progress that has been made as far as people moving up into the next class. More of the lower class citizens are becoming either a part of the middle or upper class, and the people of the middle class are becoming a part of the upper class. Another quote from the passage was “…a lot of things, especially durable goods… have been getting steadily cheaper.” With the durable goods becoming cheaper, that makes things easier to purchase for the less fortunate. With the less fortunate having easier goods to purchase, they have more money to invest in their child’s or their own personal education and future. When families have more money to invest in their child’s education, the child is more likely to end up succeeding in school.

There are many cases where people have made more out of themselves than expected. Lots of famous people such as LeBron James and Ben Carson have made something out of themselves even though they are from an impoverished background. There are not-as-famous examples as well. There was a senior in high school from south Alabama who was arguably one of the smartest kids in the country. He was an African American man who grew up in the projects in this impoverished neighborhood in a tiny town in Alabama. He wanted to make something out of himself and make his family proud by making good grades, and making the right life choices in order to get into a great college. He applied to many Ivy League schools such as: Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard. A few days after sending in his applications to the Ivy League schools, he decided he wanted to apply to a school local to him: The University of Alabama. Sure enough, he got his acceptance letters back, and ended up choosing the school that meant most to him, Alabama. He decided this because he wanted to stay close to his family and make sure he could still visit and help take care of his other siblings. He made something out of himself which seemed like it was practically impossible, but he did it through hard work and perseverance. This just shows you can make anything out of yourself as long as you have perseverance and determination.

In conclusion, the myth of Horatio Alger does indeed exist, and always remains true. The reason to believe in this argument is that there are so many people out there a part of the lower class, but there are just as many people or more that work hard and persevere to get to the next class. The Alger myth says that anybody can make it out of their current state, and this is true because there have been many people who have done it before, and many people who will do it in the future. To those people out there that live in the lower class and want to become the next lawyer or doctor or professional athlete, all you have to do is use your current living state to motivate you so you can become a part of the upper class.