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The Death Of Horatio Alger Analysis

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“The Death of Horatio Alger” By. Paul Krugman “The Death of Horatio Alger”, is an option piece written December 18, 2003 by Paul Krugman and published January 5,2004 by The Nation magazine, a “New York based publication that is known for bringing political and social issues to the forefront”. Paul Krugman has done just that with this article by drawing attention by contrasting the current socioeconomic issues of today with those of past years. (Nation) Inspired by “Waking Up from the American Dream” an article published in Business Week, Krugman found that the research in the article pointed to the “drastic increase in income and wealth inequality” which is why “America looks more and more like a class-ridden society”. With this information …show more content…

Krugman states that “the American dream of upward mobility was a real experience for many people” and uses Horatio Alger has his exemplar of what upward mobility meant to the American people. (Krugman) (Dictonary.com) Horatio Alger a” 19th century author, whose writings were characterized by the “rags to riches” narrative do to his characters rise from improvised backgrounds to lives of middle class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage and honesty, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age”. The Gilded Age as told by Krugman “was a highly unequal, that changed during the Great Compression”, a time were the income gap was small due to “corporate profits and high incomes; strong unions; and new deal polices”. Things that we lack today in society. (Wikipedia) (Krugman) Paul Krugman liken the death of Alger and the endings of his rags to riches stories, to the death of the American dream, which is the proverbial rags to riches story that many would to seek and for some still

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Many economists argue about the exact nature of the relationship of social mobility in the context of the modern economy. One such economist, Paul Krugman, negatively comments in his essay “The Death of Horatio Alger” on the decreasing social mobility among low-wage citizens in the United States. He claims that the American dream of advancement opportunities will diminish as the wealthy aim to prevent others from rising above them in the business world. Moreover, he labels America’s unequal society as a rigid “caste system” and opposes those who ignore the system’s lack of fairness to the lower class (134). Although Krugman strongly criticizes the inflexibility of economic mobility, his informal tone, biased perspective, and unjustifiable approach make his argument not only ineffective but also offensive.

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Paul Krugman author of the article “Confronting Inequality” stresses the inequality of our social classes in the United States, he uses statistics to demonstrate the staggering consequences of this inequality within our social classes. Krugman emphasizes the fact that a majority of our wealth is owned by about one percent of the population, which is leaving the middle and lower class at an extreme disadvantage. One example Krugman uses is education; children that have wealthy families, have a higher percentage of finishing college than those of lower income families, proving the statement that Krugman was accentuating, “Class-inherited class- usually trumps talent.” The parents within this middle to lower class have been exceed their financial

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Throughout the piece, Ewen uses quotes from historians and scholars to enhance his argument that americans strive to attain the dream life. Ewen quotes Alan Dawley, a well known historians who says, “There was a class of white-collar employees who earned only subsistence salaries and their sense of pride lay in the prestige of being close to the social elite. These white-collar employees anxiously strove to assemble a stylistic affinity to wealth” (Ewen 186). The white-collar employees did not have much, but they took great honor in knowing they were closer to the elite than others and continued to strive for the highest level. Alan Dawley was a professor of history who received his degree from Harvard University who also wrote three books.

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The two stories show that success is difficult to grasp in America at the time especially when society judged every little thing that colored people went through. One very important idea could be the difference between the upper and lower class societies. Dalton states that the myth is false and lacks equality of opportunities for the classes that most colored people associated with. The ability to succeed in society where a person belongs to a specific class is difficult because Dalton states, “All of which is to say that the notion that every individual is judged solely on personal merit, without regard for sociological wrapping, is mythical at best” (274). The “Horatio Alger” story stated that everyone is based on personal merit, but as

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