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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: A green-letter day ... Guest Opinion: Little room to compromise with deer ... Guest Opinion: Let’s talk turkey, Dear ... Our View: A green-letter day ... Guest Opinion: Little room to compromise with deer ... Guest Opinion: Let’s talk turkey, Dear ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: The power of myth Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jul. 18, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Jul. 18, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News In our dreadfully literal culture, which equates factuality with truth, the word “myth” usually refers to an untrue account. The Greek word mythos simply meant a story, but the most important stories people tell themselves explain their lives and indicate how they should be lived. For people in the U.S., the primary myth is the Horatio Alger story — the rags-to-riches tale that stresses the importance of personal enterprise and hard work. Horatio Alger (1832-1899) kept writing variations of that story until the public finally tired of it. In 1982 the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of Alger’s birth. Not that anybody had bought an Alger novel for decades. Rather, the purpose was to help justify Reagan’s determination to cut federal safety net programs. The justification? Poor people can lift themselves out of poverty if they have the right work ethic. Actually, I had occasion to read two of Alger’s novels shortly before the stamp was issued. I discovered that the poor lads who become financially successful don’t make it by themselves. Rather, their hard work as a newspaper hawker or shoeshine boy brings them to the attention of benevolent wealthy men, who give them a crucial leg up. But forget that complication. The U.S. is the land of opportunity where anyone can make it. And what staying power that myth has! In 1995, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 60 percent of us blamed poverty on “people not doing enough,” while only 30 percent blamed “circumstances beyond people’s control.” Lately there has been some shift of opinion, probably because the damage of the Wall Street-caused bust of 2008 reached deeply into the middle class and thus hurt large numbers of white people. As Cornel West has said, it’s about class, but in the U.S. we see class issues through a racial lens. Even so, in 2014, almost half (44 percent vs. 46 percent) of those polled continued to blame poverty on poor people’s “not doing enough.” Many Americans have risen from poverty through enterprise and hard work. Most of them were empowered by a free or low-cost college education, now a thing of the past. But individual enterprise as the mechanism for escaping poverty always has been exaggerated. Two large studies, one conducted by the Census Bureau in 1957 and a later one based on the work lives of 10,000 members of Wisconsin’s high school class of 1957, concluded that we don’t typically rise much above our original economic status unless we benefit from structural changes in the economy or belong to a group that advances en masse thanks to higher wages and benefits for the same jobs. And recently, times have gotten much worse for us. According to a 2012 Pew Economic Mobility Project study, 43 percent of children born into the bottom quintile (20 percent) remain there as adults. Correspondingly, 40 percent of children raised in the top quintile remain there as adults, and two-thirds remain above the middle quintile. A 2013 Brookings Institution study concluded that income inequality was becoming more permanent, sharply reducing social mobility. Today, nations such as Denmark and Canada have a much greater degree of mobility than we do. The Horatio Alger myth has served our wealthy elites well. It justifies gross economic inequality and has discouraged collective action, to say nothing of revolution. While we should extol individual initiative, we must face the facts about wealth and poverty. When myths deviate too much from the facts, their truths lose their beneficial force, and they devolve into mere propaganda. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jul. 18, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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