I never said it's impossible. I, too, grew up in shitty circumstances. I grew up in abject poverty in the housing projects, living off of free breakfast and lunch from school for the first 18 years of my life. My mom bailed when I was baby and my dad is a violent felon/incestuous pedophile. I earned a full ride to college, got a biochem degree, currently work as a research technician at a university, paid and am about to get a free master's degree (tuition remission as a university employee) before I hopefully get into med school in a few years.

We are both proof that it's possible. But it's also POSSIBLE to become a rock star. Or an Oscar-winning actor. Or an astronaut. People get upset when anyone says anything other than "Anyone can pull themselves out of shitty circumstances with hard work" because it threatens their idea of the American dream. The facts and statistics show that overall, upward social mobility has diminished greatly in the past 30 years, the majority of people are graduating from college and grad school with crushing debt and can't find a good job, and the American middle class is disappearing because of economic forces out of the average person's control. People used to be able to pay their way through college with a minimum wage job. These days, people can't even survive without at least two minimum wage jobs.

We both worked hard, but we also benefited from lots of good luck. I only got to where I am now because I have an IQ of 132. And if I want to get anywhere in science I need to get a PhD or go into 100k-200k in debt for med school. I know lots of people that did everything right, worked hard, got a great degree, have 200k debt from law school/grad school/med school, couldn't find a job, and moved back in with their parents.

Also, I hate to burst your bubble, but no graduate degree guarantees a job.