I'm not sure why you would find that quote so offensive, but to be fair, the disillusioned youth on Reddit are probably just as sensitive to the "anyone can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" assertions by smug boomers (like the GP). Such a world-view is increasingly at odds with an economic reality in which income inequality is higher than its been in decades, and growing.
It may not be inherently at odds, no, but I haven't seen any evidence or studies that social mobility is in any way increasing - and it does seem counter-intuitive that social mobility could increase at the same time as income inequality.
"How rising inequality affects social mobility is still unclear. Those born since inequality started to rise sharply are only just now becoming adults. However there are some troubling signs according to two papers to be presented at the Tobin Project, an alliance of scholars, this month. Christopher Jencks of Harvard University finds that income inequality has been accompanied by a widening gap in college attendance. Ms Sawhill argues that a rising correlation between income levels, likelihood of marriage and level of education will make society more stagnant."
"It may not be inherently at odds, no, but I haven't seen any evidence or studies that social mobility is in any way increasing - and it does seem counter-intuitive that social mobility could increase at the same time as income inequality."
The Internet has given many more people opportunities..if they choose to take it. There is so much free information out there..there's no reason why more people aren't able to pick up a new skill and bring themselves out of poverty.
If you don't have the Internet, pretty much every city in the US has free access at a library.
There's more to social mobility than just skill, however. As a hypothetical example, if a currently poor person who is genetically/psychologically predisposed to shyness and introversion learns a new skill, they'll still have the difficulty of forming the social connections necessary to know how to apply that skill toward generating life-altering levels of income.
But high income inequality and low social mobility (low social mobility isn't particularly in question) together as facts are at odds with a significant likelihood of folks to lift themselves out of poverty. Proving the "ability" is an existence proof about the future probability of anyone in the class escaping poverty being nonzero, and sets a very low bar for what is acceptable for society, in my opinion.
