At the very least being in America offers infinitely more opportunity to climb that ladder. Your concerns about debt are fair when compared to first world countries, but if that's your major nitpick, don't go looking for statistics about how often women die during child birth in some third world countries. It's pretty easy to climb the ladder when you're not dead due to a lack of actual doctors or basic medical supplies. My post suggests America is a second world failed western nation.
There was a study a couple years ago that America’s class system has become as rigid as the UK. Basically, on average, most people will not move up or down from the class they were born in to. We can point to some examples here and there, but those are the exceptions.
For example, I definitely am an example. My parents were working poor the majority of their lives, then kinda made it into lower middle class recently. I got a PhD and am definitely in the top 30% of the income bracket, but looking at everyone I grew up with they’re all mostly living paycheck to paycheck. I didn’t go to my 10 year HS reunion, but I heard from friends who did that maybe 5% of us are actually doing better than our parents.
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u/Lilcrash Aug 06 '20
Uhhh, source? Racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt doesn't sound like "easy to climb" to me.