Bewolf

Neal, with all due respect, but that is pretty much cliché and ideology born nonsese and also defying any common sense.

1. There are millions of ppl out there working hard, cleaning toilets, cleaning streets, packing groceries, etc. etc. To generally label these folks as lazy and lacking the will to use opportunity is more prejudiced then anything else and a very one sided view. Yeah, there are those black sheep out there, but to put them all within one basket is unfair and most of all, uninformed. Without propper education, there is hardly a way to get a good job. And propper education...well, there is a certain lack of it, let's put it this way. Last but not least, education requires intelligence. Intelligence is nothing you can train later on. Either you have it, through genes and supported by propper upbringing, or you don't.

2. If everybody had "opportunities" and used them as such, who then would do the low wage jobs? it is not as if a society has good paying jobs for everybody, thus it is "impossible", by any sense of reason, to provide anybody with a good job. Not doable, no way. Even more so if the typical middle class jobs are transferred to third world countries, thus making progress even harder domestically. So why are ppl preaching about everybody's opportuntities when by the very numbers it's impossible to achieve this for everybody no matter what? This does not add up.

3. Your premise for a good life shows a uniformed type of human almost reminsicent of communist ideology. All ppl must be equal, in this case, motivated, professional, able and more then willing to work to earn their place in society and have any rights to healthcare and other measures to make life a little less worrying. You forget that these criteria are ideals, not premises. Humanity is much more diverse and not anybody is fit for a work environment that nowadays is completly fixed on mobility, flexibility and self education. In fact in no time in the history of mankind were requirements for a good and more important, stable job as high as nowadays. It's hardly wonderous ppl fail in ever increasing numbers to cope with such a situation. There are quite a few studies out there tackling these problems. It is wishfull thinking to assume ppl have the very same chances and opportunities, far removed from reality of life. There are those that manage it, in huge parts through to their own work, but also partly to luck, chance, talent and connections. And there are those that miss the train for whatever reasons despite their best attempts or simply because modern day economics don't provide places for these kinda folks anymore like in former times.

Attitudes like yours will eventually cost a country it's democracy. Turbo capitalismm, as is shown in history, always produces very few rich and masses of poor folks, with a very small middle class. Simply because only very few ppl are "able" to use oportunity propperly and sooner or later everything works through networks. And more often then not you also have to be a ruthless to get where you want. This was the situation in Europe before the birth of communism. Environments like these carry the fruits of revolutions. And it's getting worse if hard working ppl are labelled "lazy" and unfit for higher pay just because they do not fullfill certain characteristics defined by capitalism or simply have other priorities in life then career, like home and family. This is what causes outrage and a breakup in society. It's an extreme ideology and chances are that the pendulum will swing to the other extreme sooner or later. This usually happens when a powerful minority dictates the terms of living to the majority against their basic needs.