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this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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In the Netherlands, getting ahead requires a mix of talent, luck, being born in the right zip code and work. I can only guess how this works out in a highly competative economy like the US.
it's exactly the same.
the issue is the lack of a social safety net means your prospects of getting ahead if you are born poor are basically non-existence. that wasn't the case in the 1980s though, a poor kid could get into harvard with drive and effort. now, they don't have a much chance of going to a public college. the stats are insanely bad compared to where they were a generation or two ago.
the upper classes in the USA have systematically pulled up the opportunity ladder, and horded it all for themselves for the past 30 years. they have also made it so that talent less lazy children have to do very little to succeed in life, by systematically removing them from having to complete with talented hard working poor kids.
they seem themselves as an aristocracy more and more. the idea of meritocracy is rapidly disappearing.
It's the same, except they expect you to work harder with less time off. And the lack of a social safety net means there's a huge disaffected impoverished underclass, with added discrimination against minorities and undocumented immigrants with no route to citizenship
sincere question - why does your zip code matter in the Netherlands?
Good question, and I was too lazy to search for a source. basically, statistical research has shown that zip codes of where you were born significantly correlate to income in the Netherlands, even in the same city. It depends partly on geography, but also on general wealth in the street you grow up in. A quickly googled source in Dutch: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/bepaalt-waar-je-bent-geboren-echt-je-kansen-in-het-leven~bc55f410/
In the United States, zip code also correlates because things like school funding are based on property tax and vary by location.
thanks!