Horatio Alger stories were about humble, brave, smart and hardworking boys from troubled, deprived backgrounds who found terrible, unrewarding jobs or situations, worked hard, smart, or bravely at them, and were observed doing this by successful, wealthy, and wise men who recognized that raw merit, plucked those boys from their situations, moved them into their businesses and homes, and gave those boys real responsibility and a start on their road to inevitable success.

Horatio Alger was a pedophile who preyed on young homeless boys and orphans.

It is very easy for the best burger flipper at McDonald's to remain the best burger flipper at McDonald's forever. His job is safe. The harder he's willing to work without getting a raise, the longer he will be working without getting a raise. One day, he will probably become assistant manager, and his promotion will mean a pay cut because now he's on salary, and his responsibilities will become greater because he has to show up when others don't. They know he will, which is why they gave him the job. Meanwhile, he works under a series of managers transferred from other locations, or hired from other companies. Eventually he gets sick, and his awful health insurance runs out almost immediately. He's demoted, then fired because he can't keep up at the job anymore. Then he's homeless, then he's dead.

Goofus, however, did the least possible in order to keep from being fired, and went to community college at night. He eventually was able to wrangle a paid internship at a company where there was a career path, and quit McDonald's. Everybody was happy to see him go, because he was a person like them who managed to get a good job, and also because he was terrible to work with because he was always so tired from school and didn't put a ton of effort in. Goofus is now middle-class.

postscript: Goofus later also got sick, his insurance ran out, and he became homeless and died. US healthcare is terrible.