Normal human social achievement has always been a multi-generational project. That is the way people progress. The war on reality, for that is what Egalitarianism is, is the greatest impediment, not only for social progress among the most productive; but perhaps an even greater impediment to those to whom life is a greater struggle. Nothing is more stultifying than abandoning the struggle for a sense of entitlement—for a sense that the world owes one a living.
People who work for a living recognize the value of education and learning. Either they're glad they had one, or they're sorry they didn't. Either way, they want their kids to be educated. They know the world is not an "everybody's a winner!" place, and they want their children prepared to compete.
People who don't work and live on the dole don't see the value. They're getting their check same as everybody else on the block. That may be OK, but it is By God unfair for anybody else to have anything more than what they've got.
Race hasn't entered this conversation, but I'm dragging it up. Black students in the 30's/40's were much better educated than today, even if they were educated in dismal segregated schools. Their wasn't a social safety net, and their parents knew that school was their chance at any sort of decent life at all. Teachers in black school were absolutely revered in their communities.
Now, rather than an upbringing that inspires hope and striving for prosperity, we have generations who are raised to be envious and resentful of what others have earned.
It's not fair until everybody's life sucks.
There, their, they're.
My kingdom for an edit function.