The fallacy of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps

It is human nature to think that because you had to struggle to accomplish something, others should, too. How is it fair if they get something without putting in as much work as you did?

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” has been attributed to several sources, one being an 1800s physics schoolbook titled “The Elements of Physics” by Alfred Payson Gage, PhD. The question in the book is: “Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?” One cannot pull oneself up by their bootstraps as it is physically impossible. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his bootstraps.” 

So, how did it transform into a phrase for self-reliance, hard work, and making your own way? Somewhere in the common colloquial, this phrase took on the meaning of “you just need to work hard.” If you’re poor, it’s your fault for not trying hard enough. Folks who have worked hard may say this because they believe that is how they got to where they are. Most folks who say this forget the help or support they had along the way to make them successful. A poll by the Pew Research Center in 2020 found that about twenty-five percent of Americans believe that people are poor because “they have not worked as hard as most other people.” 

In an article by Alissa Quart in Time Magazine, she writes, “For years, I have been struck by how much the self-made myth shapes public opinion and policy. As a reporter focused on inequality, I frequently see this relentless individualistic stance, even in the messages I receive from readers about how the poor are responsible for their own scarcity, strangers wagging their proverbial fingers at “single mothers” or people who’ve been evicted.”

How can we as a society shift away from the individual, as has come to be the norm, back to one that is communal, to helping our fellow man?

A co-worker lamented that new hires shouldn’t get more vacation time because they didn’t have that same policy 20 years ago. Yet another was pleased to see that the vacation policy had changed, and that new employees would benefit. “How wonderful to have a better work-life balance,” he said.

What creates the different mindset between these two employees?