^ you underestimate the circumstances of the current generation of protesters. They have been trashed on the economic scrap pile since entering the workforce, not had jobs having a pick of vocations like the boomers.
Maybe I'm out of touch, but I really don't get this whine. Economic progress is so simple it is stupid. Create something of value that someone else is willing to pay you for. End of story.
I hear you, there is a spectrum of oppression, and I am not at all sure that any US citizen is truly oppressed and without opportunity.
That said, there does come a time when pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps involves burning the lords house and seizing his lands.
There are likely opportunities in the USA; however, let's say if some one grows up poor and with a lot of poor values being passed down by parents, then that kid is going to have to figure things out on his own and get his shit in order and that kid is not going to have as many opportunities to screw up as some rich kid that fucks around until he is thirty or forty and daddy can just put him into a position of power and influence.. etc.
So, surely starting points are relevant in regards to how much hard work might need to be carried out and still very difficult odds, yet i would still say if you are dealt a rough hand, then surely you have to figure out how you want to proceed by attempting to figure out some way to get ahead and be self-sufficient, or sure it can also be tempting to party every day like it is 1999.. and there are some folks who choose to do that and seem to have few if any goals (beyond just saying that they wished that there circumstances were better.. and likely to even be in a worse situation if they continue to party for the next 10-15 years after graduating from high school (presuming graduation might be a threshold to adulthood that may or may not be accomplished) rather than buckling down).