http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11195Ben Franklin did write about improving the lot of working types in Philadelphia, but I don't know if actually made any changes.
At any rate, it seems the natural order of things is for some people to manage to move to the top of the pile and screw everyone else, and the only real leveling maechanism would be government. Long before we did anything, as a side effect of the Enlightenment a few European governments fooled around with social schemes with some successes.
It has been argued that Sweden's extraordinary economic success has been due partly to its neutrality but primarily to a population that, while heavily taxed, has no fear of need. Bismarck, perhaps the ultimate pragmatist, understood that a population in poverty was useless and instituted one of the first Social Security systems, along with some other reforms. I don't know when the Dutch, Danes, French, and others started their social reforms, but in general you can still get, and stay, rich but if you're not on the top of the heap you won't have to worry about being homeless or hungry. Or getting healthcare.
Japan doesn't have much in the way of an "official" social safety net, but culturally they have ways of making sure there are no robber barons screwing the rest.