To a degree social mobility can and does exist, but I would love to know how many Eton Schoolboys end up working in Tesco's. It is common sense to assume that people who have significant material support are more likely to find themselves access to more possibilities than those who do not. Inherited wealth and expensive education are significant factors. If you are raised in council housing, from a broken family, and have no money then you are far more likely to struggle in life. Of my schoolfriends who weren't well off pretty much all are doing menial jobs such as bar tending, bouncer work, retail and the like today. None of these people were ever able to get ahead and though you could argue that they just didn't make the right decisions, in many ways the paths were already set as that is the path most follow. You don't work in a supermarket after Eton and with parental connections.

And I see it is a declining state of affairs with everything being made harder for ordinary people. Public education is sliding, higher education will saddle you with lifelong debt, and jobs for young people simple are not there. There really is very little to aim for.