You have to start somewhere. Most people start with a job and go from there. "Climbing the ladder" is not what it used to be. In many cases the bottom rungs have been removed.

I have a friend who works for Microsoft and she's done quite well but she started in shipping and receiving before Microsoft decided to send manufacturing overseas.

Programmers have to compete with those in India and what was once a well paying job, computer programming is now suffering from wage dilution. In fact many of the small companies have all the grunt work done in India and then have it sent to them every night for final assembly.

You used to be able to “get a foot in the door”. Now a lot of those doors are closed.

If income inequality is growing, that should be enough evidence that it is not quite a level playing field. If you don’t believe it then it must be that what used to be the middle class, has simply become lazy.