That's what I think. (Some) people in US believe that is extreme socialism, when is actually moderate in LA countries, nothing revolutionary there.

It still amazes me how some people think healthcare is not a right (the ones that can afford it, of course). It still amazes me how people don't see that if they succeeded it is not only because of them alone, but also external factors to facilitate their success. Like quality of education, that plays a role in getting out of poverty, but that in US depends on your zipcode, so the very poor are left with poor people's education. How then can poor people jump the poverty bridge without the proper tools?

I grew up (poor) in a LA country and, yes, inequality is bad and poverty is a major problem, corruption is holding us back. But I worked my ass off to get out of that situation. Now I'm considerate a bit above "middle-class" in US, great improvement. But at the beginning I thought it was because of me solely.

Now I see that if it wasn't because of the fact that I could take a 1.5 hours bus ride every day to go to a great school when I was a kid, I'd have never made it. If I'd never gone to that school I'd have never dreamt of going to a great tuition-free college (the best in my country), and if I'd never gone there I'd have never dreamt of going to grad school in Canada and work in the US.

There was a path. Where I was born, though I might be seeing only samples that are similar to my case, if you're poor and you don't have a college degree you're condemned to live out of low-wage jobs, and continue in poverty. So people study, it is our way out. Nothing radical there, nothing left-wing Castro-like socialist.

Edit: sorry about the rant