" The Horatio Alger myth "

when people refer to the horatio alger myth they mean more or less the phrase rags to riches. Its easy for us to say that times have changed. but that is not neccarcerrily true. ragged dick was a story written and published in extreme times of poverty in america and was about child homelessness. The series was a survival guide aswell as much as it was a source of entertainment. it can be seen as part of his statement that if you work hard you can become something much better. this gives allot of people hope and is not disimular to what De Crevcoer said about how people can become very wealthy in america if they have a good work ethic and morals.

http://discipline.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/the-horatio-alger-myth-or-reality/

here is a website with some statistics that say the horatio Alger Myth is alive today.

It shows some statistics of people who have been poor and have had their incommes dramatically improve due to political changes.

the site is not happy by the statistics and seems to be sueded more towards the capitolist view.

despite all this there is a comment at the bottom that claims that a kid dreaming to be a baseball pro has the same chance as winning the "lotto" showing a very pesimistic veiw and disagreeing with the horatio alger myth.