Rogerian Essay - the Myth of Horatio Alger

Preston Still

Mrs. Thomas

English 131-6

10 November 2016

Rogerian Essay

The myth of Horatio Alger continues to live, and is in fact found to be true. Many children that graduate from high school, work full-time, and wait until they're married and over twenty one to become parents, end up joining the middle class; but that is not always the case. There are also people who do not grow up with those conditions and live in an already poor class, and still manage to reach the middle class. The change that needs to be made is that all children, whether living in middle class or poverty, need to realize the choices they make at a young age are important to their life later on, and they need to do what is best for them. Many people would like this to be the case, including people who might not agree with this argument, because it shouldn’t matter where you come from, but it does and everybody wants everyone to have an equal opportunity to become a part of their class of choice.

        People might disagree that there is nobody that makes it out of their class by saying the Alger myth is not true. “The American Dream became a reality for more Americans than ever before.” Some people believe that the Alger myth is completely false and it is not possible to get out of your class that you started in. In this quote it says that there have been more Americans that have reached the American Dream than ever before. This means that not only have people already in the middle class reached the American Dream, but there had to be other people such as the lower class citizens that had to reach the American Dream to make this possible. This shows that there were many lower class citizens that did not grow up in privileged families that still were able to live out the American Dream. “Recent decades have seen a dramatic shrinking of the middle class as the nation’s wealth has become more concentrated in the hands of the very rich.” This means that all of the money in our nation is going to the upper class instead of the people who need the money. This is why we need lower class citizens to: have a hard work ethic, make good grades, go to a good college, get a high quality job, then become a part of the upper class. Once we find some citizens that can do this we can then distribute a portion of their money to those who really need it. People who are born into money don’t understand that there are so many people out there that are born into poverty, and that they have no money or help to get them to the American Dream. When given the opportunity to get a good education, kids will then learn the importance of making good grades and getting a good job. The already wealthy do not understand this, so we need lower and middle class citizens to get to the upper class to help out the people in our community.

        Many people still believe in the Alger myth and it is found to be true. Many people have come out of poverty into the upper or middle class. The people who might argue this do in fact make valid points. There is over half of the population that ends up in the same class they started in according to “Pathways to the Middle Class”. In the data cited by Senator Rick Santorum and also by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, it says that if individuals graduate from high school, work full-time, and wait until they’re married and over 21 to become parents, they have a very good chance of joining the middle class. Also the data shows that if individuals who work hard, avoid pitfalls and make responsible choices greatly improve their odds for success. This statement in the study I agree with because you can’t become a part of the next class by making bad choices. The part I do not completely agree with that I may see other people agreeing with is when they say “We would add that children from less advantaged backgrounds often see little reason to make these responsible choices, given the environments in which they live and the opportunities that are available to them. Indeed, by the time children can be reasonably held accountable for their choices, many are already behind because of choices their parents made for them.” The reason why I don’t necessarily agree with that statement is because parents don’t make choices to put their kids behind. All children are born the same way, they all have the same advantages as far as public school and a quality education. Now, the kids who grow up in less advantaged backgrounds are going to be influenced by bad influences. That’s why when someone makes it out of their class it is so great because they beat all odds and did the things everybody thought they couldn’t do. So even though those studies do make valid points, it is not always true.

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