Quote (Ghot @ Jun 7 2020 04:55pm)
On an individual level, yes, anybody can overcome their circumstances.
However, everybody cannot overcome their circumstances. There simply are not enough jobs or resources for everybody to be successful at once. That some people will fail is not a bug, it's a feature of competitive systems.
So not everybody will succeed, and certain groups are at a disadvantage in that competition. Those groups are ones that have been historically unable to build wealth due to systematic action by the government. Things like red-lining that prevented black people from acquiring home loans and building generational wealth. Things like drug laws that increased sentencing specifically for drugs used by minorities so that the breadwinners of the house would more often go to jail and result in poverty for the rest of the family. Uneven policing so innocent members of that group would sit in jail waiting for a trail and lose their jobs and all their savings even if they come out innocent.
Really the list goes on.
On an individual level it's possible for everybody to overcome their circumstances, but as a group not everybody can overcome them because the system is competitive and resources are limited.