That's just how the world works. It's not fair, and it never was. You're simply told that it's fair because that's what the people on top need you to believe in

That's just how the world works. It's not fair, and it never was. You're simply told that it's fair because that's what the people on top need you to believe in order to keep society from crumbling. America is in a dangerous position right now because they've let financial inequality grow too big - which, historically, precedes a sharp decline/collapse or a revolution (bloody as in civil war, or peaceful as in rebooting government). This is also why people are voting for crazies like Trump: He promises to fix things, and that's what people want to hear because they know it's all broken and no other politician will even admit there's a problem. Trump is of course toxic and will destroy everything, but that's beside the point because the people have lost hope and they need to hear something good for a change, even if it's an obvious lie. But I digress... Yeah, you got shafted. But you're still young, and you can take that knowledge of the inherent unfairness and start making things work for you instead of staying in the box they've prepared for you. The people who get ahead know what rules to keep and what rules they can break. Learn from them. This is nothing new. It's always the same story because in the beginning of an empire, it actually is true that things are (mostly) fair and you have every opportunity if you work hard. But over time it starts to decay, and eventually it becomes not true. Even George Orwell knew that ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm) ). Take this as your first real life lesson (there will be many more). The only other advice I can give is: The poor people work for their money. The rich people make their money work for them. How do you get enough money that it can start working for you? That's the trick - it's always changing. Right now the money is in luxury goods and subsistence goods (ultra rich goods and ultra poor goods) because the middle class has been hollowed out, so they're not buying middle class goods.