Reply #139: First off, we do not have the best upward mobility index. Check your stats.

[noamnety]

Second, I would disagree that we "give everyone the opportunity to succeed." My perspective is coming from living in a region where your capitalists have poisoned the ground to the point where more than 10% of our kids have lead poisoning. Not from paint - but from having contact with the soil which is contaminated. The things that capitalists (those with capital) do to our environment cause mental and physical defects in people that often prevent them from being able to succeed, and because we don't have universal health care, many times these people can't get the medical care they need, or they get partial care but are bankrupted because of it.

People in countries where you aren't bankrupted for being sick have better opportunities to succeed, no? (Unless you count forced bankruptcy through no fault of your own as "success.")