The US is grossly unfair in terms of starting wealth. I don't hate rich kids: they didn't choose to be born rich. But we lived on different planets, and I hate the society that punishes kids for not being born rich.
I grew up on the bottom end. Single mom, with no child support, no job, but with untreated mental health issues. One bedroom apt for three people. Evicted every couple of years. Never enough money for food (not even the unhealthy kind) or clothes without holes. Beg, borrow and steal. No money for doctors, dentists or other fancy services. Sometimes no money for electricity. No fancy luxuries like a shower or AC - so you perpetually look dirty even if you take a bath daily. And kids were mercilessly cruel about things like that.
For school, if it wasn't free, it wasn't happening. Extra curriculars? $10 to join a sport team wasn't happening. Gym clothes? No. Running shoes? No. Want to play ball? Go look around the park and ses if you can find a lost ball. Want to take an AP class or SAT? Better go beg for someone else to pay for it. Want to do science fair? Posterboard and markers are too expensive.
You're 12? Old enough to work under the table. You're 14? You can now get government program jobs with a waiver. You're 16? Now you can step up to legit minimum wage jobs. Just get a passing grade and fuck homework so you have time to do paying work. Graduate as fast as you can to get out of here.
You want to go to college? Ha. Who's going to pay for that application? Who's paying for the bus ride just so you can look at a campus? Who's going to accept you with that shit GPA? I'm lucky I got a waiver on SAT fees and a good score so I still had a chance.
You're 17? Now you can join the Army and get away. A legit paycheck, with legit food and a legit shower and legit work clothes without holes. I put on 20 pounds in basic training because food. Nothing to be scared of from a foreign army compared to the shootings Saturday night in the hood. Dentist had a lot of work to do to catch up. And that poverty-line salary made me the richest I've ever been. Even got a computer.
Turning 18 I had no monetary debt, but years of catching up on basic expenses just to catch up to middle class high schoolers. In another 5 years, I'd even be rich enough to get a 15 year old car. Living off student loans and ramen was heaven, even though the other kids bitched about living off $1000/mo, I was living off $500/mo on food and a room and that was finally the best years of my life. I lost a few years going to wars, but by 25 I caught up to where those middle class kids were at 18.
But of course I hadn't really caught up. After 18 some kids got a cheap room at their parents place, or their parents paid for a cell phone bill, or even paid for their car or college. And after college, some parents helped kids get jobs or down payments for mortgages.
Grad school was great until the scholarships dried up. Interviewing is hard when you've never interacted with corporate white collar employees. Be yourself is terrible advice when they can't relate to your life. Many, many cringeworthy career limiting interactions. Laid off? At least you had a parent with a couch you could crash on. I had that old car that was just getting older to sleep in.
But it got better. I'm still a straight white American male who never got caught up in crime or drugs and did well on standarized tests. I had a chance. I got out of the hood, figured out how to pretend to be middle class, and kept finding work. Hopefully by retirement age I will catch up to the kids born rich who spent most of their adult lives in jail and rehab.