Yes. The statement is not literally true; there is, indeed, a person in the united states who has started in poverty and become not poor. It should, however, be pretty clear the statement was not meant to be interpreted literally.
Socio-economic mobility in the united states is low, and falling.
The thesis is that what we've seen over the last 30 years -- from pensions, to unemployment, to education -- is a broad shifting of who bears risk from the government/populace as a whole to individuals.
And this cuts both ways; I definitely know harvard legacy admits who sure as hell didn't get there on merit. And a startup founder who could start his ad company because his parents could loan him $500k without it being a financial crisis if they didn't get it back, and who used his company to run advertising for their chain of auto dealerships. So it's obviously quite possible to start a company without personal wealth, or familial wealth, but it's a hell of a lot easier with it. See, also, eg Bill Gates.
Socio-economic mobility in the united states is low, and falling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the_...
Or read Peter Gosselin's book _High Wire_ http://www.amazon.com/High-Wire-Precarious-Financial-America...
The thesis is that what we've seen over the last 30 years -- from pensions, to unemployment, to education -- is a broad shifting of who bears risk from the government/populace as a whole to individuals.
And this cuts both ways; I definitely know harvard legacy admits who sure as hell didn't get there on merit. And a startup founder who could start his ad company because his parents could loan him $500k without it being a financial crisis if they didn't get it back, and who used his company to run advertising for their chain of auto dealerships. So it's obviously quite possible to start a company without personal wealth, or familial wealth, but it's a hell of a lot easier with it. See, also, eg Bill Gates.