The myth that you can rise from poverty to "achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others." (wiki)

It was of course all horse twaddle as Alger came from an upper class family, attended Harvard and traveled in Europe as a young man. Like some of the Republicans and Libertarians of today who admire him, he resigned his position of minister in a Unitarian Church "following a pederastic scandal involving two teenage boys." (ibid) We'd probably call him a pedophile today.

This idea that you're poor or sick because of something that you've done or haven't done is one of the most bizarre of a host of bizarre beliefs the RW propounds.