The feeling of being unaccomplished

Remember when you were a child and you thought of all the things you could be when you grew up? What happened to the feeling of opportunity and the ability to accomplish goals you set for yourself? 

It is sometimes said that you don't accomplish what you want in life because you don't try hard enough, but is that in fact really true? I'm finding more and more that the people who are accomplishing these great goals they have had for themselves are people who are still living with their parents or know someone who can get them ahead. Whatever happened to the necessity for raw talent? When did people stop looking at applications and saying "this could be a perfect fit" and start saying "well this is so and so's child and we can teach them what they need to know"?

People talk of political parties only looking out for the better of those within their circle, but the reality is the entire American economic system has fallen into that realm of thinking. Society has become a place where people want to see people they know succeed. That's not to say that they don't want to see those they don't know succeed but, rather play the out of sight of mind game. 

I enjoy writing. I also enjoy researching. I could think of a million topics to research and write papers on, but guess what I'm not a college professor and no one is going to pay me to just sit around and write. I went to school where the newspaper was controlled by a committee that was basically like a sorority/ fraternity combined. FACT!  IF YOU WANTED TO WRITE FOR THE SCHOOL PAPER YOU HAD TO ENDURE THE HAZING IT TOOK JUST TO GET ON TO THE COMMITTEE! Not to mention it consisted of all the rich kids; because obviously if you came from a wealthy family it meant you were more apt to produce great stories and have better writing. 

Something in me has snapped today and I'm not sure why, but I'm looking around me and seeing that this country and the institutions of learning (especially higher learning) are not what they were when I was child. Though I am unmarried and without children looking at society the way it is and what it's evolving into worries me and makes me question whether I would want a family in it.