I'm not saying there's no such thing as self-made success, but that they're rare. Your dad did work very hard to be exceptional at what he did. But that's the thing, he's exceptional. My mother grew up working since she was 13, her parents could hardly afford to let her finish high school. She was never able to afford college and married young, then became a single mother through no fault of her own. She worked her way up to decent positions in various career lines (department store manager, insurance sales person, law clerk etc.), but never got to continue on any because she could never afford the schooling required to pursue it further. She's currently working as a secretary, but she could have been so much more. Mind you, I'm Canadian, so despite my Grandmother getting cancer, my mom was able to make do despite losing one of her minimum-wage jobs (thankfully minimum wage exists) so she could ferry my granny around to all the appointments. If we were in the US, either my Grandmother would have died, or we would be in horrible debt. I'm in huge student debt because my parents never had a education fund for me. Thankfully, Canadian student loans have pretty low interest, and tuition prices aren't as ridiculous as US prices, so it's manageable. There are absolutely people who are able to be successful, but because there's no social safety net, there are so many caveats. All of it assuming you don't get sick, you don't have to take care of your parents, you don't have to support a family, your spouse doesn't get sick, the economy doesn't crash etc. Each of those things set you back, and if you get a continuous string of them... really, you could not give up, but you're also taking one step forward, two steps back. This shouldn't happen. There should be a basic standard of living that everyone in a civilized country can enjoy (not going hungry, being able to afford rent, having access to healthcare, having access to education).