Your statements are such a massive oversimplification of a system that is so endlessly complex and full of exploitation that I'm beginning to suspect it's a well formed parody. Only a person with little experience "on the ground" in the formerly middle class America could produce such a piece without a derisive snicker. I won't bore the audience with anecdata but sufficed to say: The idea that hard work is both necessary and suffient to shape one's own life meaningfully is six feet under everywhere between the coasts. The people are fooled no longer and we shall see next election if they're willing to vote that way.