Anyone who has time to complain about wealth inequality doesn't really deserve moving upwards in the food chain, as they could've invested the same time on figuring out sensible goals for their life as well as some steps towards them.
QFT.
+1
What he said.
What if they used the time, then figured out the solutions and then realized every one of those solutions would get them killed so decided to just sit back and complain until someone else finds a better solution that doesn't get them killed?
I can't even figure out what you are getting at. Working on life will get you killed? I guess in some sense. In the long run, we're all dead.
Life is hard. Buck up, bucko - or get lapped by those willing to put in the work.
I dated a girl for a number of years.
Her father was wealthy and powerful. He owned 25+ houses that he rented out. He was also a drunk and highly abusive.
The mother eventually divorced him after a series of domestic violence incidents. The father decided to make the mother's life a living hell. He hired lawyers to sue the mother for everything under the sun, stalked the mother and tried to destroy her friendship networks. This went on for five years.
The mother grew deeply depressed and semi suicidal. My girlfriend and her sister at the age of 8 had to get the mother out of bed in the morning, get her dressed so the mother could drive them to school. Some days they couldn't get their mother out of bed so they missed school.
My girlfriend was incredibly smart and motivated but she missed a lot of school during that five year period. It affected her grades and she had to work hard to try to catch up. She also had the mental load of trying to parent her own mother through the divorce and aftermath. There is no doubt in my mind if she had had a normal, stable childhood, she would have been a surgeon or rocket scientist. Instead she will likely never achieve her full potential.
Let's not kid ourselves that everyone has equality of opportunity. Because they don't.
Equality of opportunity doesn't mean equality of hardships encountered either. You can have the same opportunities on a race track, but still end up staggering. Doesn't mean the other racers had better opportunities than you. Doesn't mean you were at fault for staggering either. The question is, do you get up or start complaining.
Your ex could have just given up, but she didn't. So she's better off than she would have been. And unless she's too old to move she still has plenty of opportunity to move upward. An average income is enough to retire as a (multi) millionaire if you invest a good bulk of it. Even if you start investing at 30-40.
P.S. You could also argue that those hardships made her more resilient against stress. Which could very well mean that it would be easier for her to achieve top 1% and higher goals than the average person. Would that mean that she had greater opportunities than others? And that the people without such hardships were dealt an unfair card?