Yes I do live in America - and nothing I've said has anything to do with zero sum economics - only that examples of people succeeding has no bearing on how likely it is in general. The "American Dream" implies that economic mobility is 1) likely in America and 2) more likely there than in other places. This can be and has been measured and the results are not in general optimistic e.g. https://news.yale.edu/2025/02/20/tracking-decline-social-mob...