The fundamental factor that will determine the amount of lifetime earnings and individual makes more than any other factor is their education. In the US today

The fundamental factor that will determine the amount of lifetime earnings and individual makes more than any other factor is their education. In the US today - - 50% of inner city school kids will not graduate high school. - 66% of the prison population is functionally illiterate. - 75% of the prison population has not finished high school. - 19% of the US population is unable to read a newspaper, and nearly the entirety of them are earning near or below poverty levels of income. John Allison, the former CEO of BB&T, (the bank) talks about how they tried to open a customer service call center in a historically low income area of North Carolina, due to it being geographically near to their headquarters. That's an entry level job that would have paid good wages, and with a good career path (potential for promotion to management positions or transfer to HQ of the bank). Why couldn't it open? They literally could not staff the center because so much of the local labor pool could not read or write at a functional level. The Right is correct in the sense that if you are lazy, you won't have much success in life. The Left is correct in the sense that it's not the only factor at play. You can be the hardest worker in America but if you can't read you just won't be able to earn that much. If we want to boost social mobility among the lower classes, we need to get them to a level where they can actually perform higher paying work. Despite enormous expenditure (an average of $15,500 per student per year!!), the public schooling system in the US has failed a huge portion of our lower income population.