From Rags to Riches: The Story Behind America's Wealthiest Company

 People in the US still believe in the "American dream," even though our chances of moving up in life are getting worse. As the number of billionaires grows, their lives give us hope or make us want everything they have. We are very interested in what the very rich do, both the real ones (like Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk) and the fake ones (like Bobby Axelrod and Logan Roy). This isn't new; Americans have always loved stories that make them feel good about their dreams of getting rich and moving up in society. Horatio Alger, a boy's adventure book author in the 1800s, may have been the most important cultural figure in keeping the American dream alive for longer.

During his lifetime, Alger was very well-known, and his books were a big part of the American dream of equality. We can't get away from the idea that his name is linked to the "rags to riches" story. It is used so often in economics reporting, and often wrongly, that it has turned into a big myth that can be interpreted in many different ways. In his writing, Malcolm Gladwell says that Alger's books are about "young boys born into poverty who rise to riches through a combination of pluck and initiative." Even though Alger writes about how important it is to work hard, pray, be honest, and save money, his books also depend on luck and the kindness of someone much higher up the social ladder. Working hard is important, but not as much as getting help from a rich person. This is one way in which Alger's books are more like real life than many of the stories that billionaires tell themselves.

As a young adult, "Ragged Dick," Alger's most well-known book, tells the story of a 14-year-old bootblack who is trying to find his way in New York. Dick works hard but wastes a lot of money. He polishes shoes all day and then buys his friends "oyster stew" every night with their spare change. He's not a smug landowner; instead, he's a brave party animal who always has a smile on his face and is "on the alert for business." He meets the wealthy Mr. Whitney on the streets of New York and gets a new suit and hired as a guide for his nephew. Whit says, "It might be foolish of me to trust a boy I don't know, but I like the way you look." Whitney gives Dick $5. Dick uses that money to pay for a week's stay, put the rest in the bank, and get a fellow street boy with letters to share his room in exchange for teaching Dick how to read and write. In the follow-up book, "Fame and Fortune," Dick gets $1,000 from another kind person and spends it in real estate.

There is a well-known fairy tale theme to "Ragged Dick." Dick goes from being poor to being middle class thanks to the help of several wealthy patrons. In fact, Dick sees the connection himself. He says, "It makes me think of Cinderella when she was turned into a fairy princess." He looks at himself in the mirror after cleaning up and putting on new clothes. It's a strong story based on the fact that a rich man and a poor teenager have a lot of power, which can be abused. It's also based on the idea of free business. It's not what we think about the thousand other bootblacks who won't meet their benefactors—boys that the text brushes off as bad guys or never even mentions. Americans love to tell the story over and over again. Is it because we don't really understand it, or is it because something deep inside it whispers the truths we act like we don't know?

The reporter who calls their subject a "real-life Alger story" probably doesn't think about Dick's new clothes, but they are an important part of his story. William Alger may have thought he was teaching a Protestant moral, but he seems to have instead used a pedophilic fairy tale, a story that goes at least as deep in America as Puritanism. This is what literary scholar James R. Kincaid says in his book "Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting." It's not hard work that gets you ahead, it's being cute around adults who are easy to target. Before he was a novelist, Alger was a disgraced minister who was kicked out of his church for sexually abusing two boys, ages 13 and 15. This reading is even darker when we think about that. When Alger quit his job to start a famous writing career and help boys who were having a hard time, he didn't deny the charge. In this light, the Alger books are not just encomia on hard work; they are also troubling works about power, desire, eros, and fantasy, all of which are important parts of how Americans think about wealth.

In the 19th century, when intergenerational mobility was on the rise for a while, Alger's additions to the Cinderella story—the use of banking, the initiative of young people, the value of education, and smart investment—had a lot more meaning. Even though mobility has slowed down and inequality has grown over the past few decades, we are still inspired by Alger's additions and the idea that hard work and a little luck can lead to, if not great wealth, at least comfort and ease.