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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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