I think there's a lot to be said for how helpless the average worker is in the modern economy. Part of it isn't just the absolute conditions of modern people, but the knowledge and zeitgeist that people have now. The concept of the "American Dream" isn't dead, but it's becoming increasingly reserved for only a small subset of people with specific backgrounds and skills. People that aren't, for lack of a better word, special simply aren't going to make it big; more importantly, even if this has always been the case, people now know that about themselves.

People born in poverty look to lottery tickets, both literally and in the form of risky activities like gang activities and becoming professional sports players (which is risky relative to what else you could accomplish given the same amount of effort). They typically don't have access to education, or benefit from stable households, enough to break out. Middle class people don't realistically have a chance of becoming wealthy unless they're unusually smart or socially skilled. Neither group has the means to fix this situation politically or culturally because very wealthy people control politics and culture (or at the very least, all the important parts). Most modern success stories are essentially an upper-middle class person rising to the lower-upper class.

I think we need a new frontier. Maybe that's just a substitute for a lottery ticket, but it's a lottery ticket with much better odds.