Are you telling me that you have bought into the narrative that everybody who is successful is so because they were born into it? — synthesis

The example of traders wouldn't fit into that, but there are plenty of examples where that's the case, yes. Look at British politics... A gauntlet of Eton-educated buffoons doing what pater expected of them. Or, for that matter, America's political class, or do you think Trump and Bush Jr got their by their bootstraps?

This isn't 18th and 19th century Europe. — synthesis

That stopped in the 20th century, did it? Did women know this? That's half the population. Ethnic minorities? Homosexuals? What about people just born poor who didn't have the option of Harvard or Oxford?

That stopped in the 20th century, did it? Did women know this? That's half the population. Ethnic minorities? Homosexuals? What about people just born poor who didn't have the option of Harvard or Oxford? — Kenosha Kid

That's over with. This is 2021 and you need to move on.

There will ALWAYS be people that have advantages. Put you big boy pants on and deal with it.

Three people believed to have been stranded on an uninhabited island in the Bahamas for 33 days have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.

"Unfortunately we didn't have any fluent Spanish speakers but in my broken Spanish I was able to discern that they were from Cuba and....

...only fled the workers paradise because equality is such a good basis for an economic system, they had become overwhelmed with happiness!

Ya think?

That's over with. This is 2021 and you need to move on. — synthesis

I think this is why conservativism is always on the wrong side of history. "Yes, we were wrong in our beliefs about slaves and women and race and sexuality until a few years ago, but we're definitely correct now so no more 'improvements' please."

Three people believed to have been stranded on an uninhabited island in the Bahamas for 33 days have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.

"Unfortunately we didn't have any fluent Spanish speakers but in my broken Spanish I was able to discern that they were from Cuba and....

...only fled the workers paradise because equality is such a good basis for an economic system, they had become overwhelmed with happiness!

Ya think? — counterpunch

I'm not advocating a socialist utopia. But let's not forget all the medical tourism from the US to Cuba that went on before Obamacare. Cuba was taking care of Americans because Americans couldn't take care of themselves. Suggests a happier medium betwixt, but idiots tend to deal in extremes, in either/or.

What about people just born poor who didn't have the option of Harvard or Oxford? — Kenosha Kid

Born poor does not equate to useless. If you want something bad enough you find a way to get it. Being born poor means you likely have to work harder to get it, that's all. Harvard, Oxford, or whatever school is not out of reach, although the time frame to get there maybe longer.

idiots tend to deal in extremes, in either/or. — Kenosha Kid

It was either/or for those Cubans when they put to sea on a raft made from coconuts stuck together with bird shit. Either they get to a country that doesn't have a political system based on equality, or they die. Same with the Berlin Wall. Pretty much everyone braving the machine guns and barbed wire, was trying to escape from equality. How do you not get that? Equality does not work as a political ideal.

Equality does not work as a political ideal — counterpunch

Treating everyone like garbage is equality, but I don't really want to live there eh.

Try telling him that! Communism is dead. The correct political ideal to take its place is Truth; relative to Freedom, and the consequence of the democratic compromise between them being capitalism regulated to achieve sustainability.

I think this is why conservativism is always on the wrong side of history. — Kenosha Kid

Think about what you just wrote. Are there things in your life that work for you or do you just change everything all the time for the sake of change?

If your thinking is unbalanced, you are probably wrong. Extreme positions create extreme outcomes (which are rarely a good thing).

American and Canadian governments, in particular, typically maintain thinly veiled yet strong ties to large corporations, as though elected heads are meant to represent big money interests over those of the working citizenry and poor.

I believe it reflects why those powerful interests generally resist proportional representation electoral systems of governance, the latter which tends to dilute the corporate lobbyist influence on the former.
(The first-past-the-post electoral system just barely qualifies as democratic rule within the democracy spectrum, and it best serves corporate interests.)

With the momentum of the growing wealth gap and big business gaining greater advantage over the worker, I don’t see how very much can be realistically changed by ‘the little guy’, even through a social pendulum shift.

Unlike with a few social/worker revolutions of the past, notably the Bolshevik and French revolutions, it seems to me that contemporary Western world’s virtual corporate rule and superfluously wealthy essentially have the police and military ready to foremost protect big power and money interests, even over the food and shelter needs of the protesting masses.

It could be excused as busting heads to maintain law and order as a priority. Thus the absurdly unjust inequities and inequalities can persist.