But for those who seek it, the U.S. is the most fertile ground on earth.
I think it has been proven that this is not true.
It is increasingly true that the only wealthy people in the US were born that way.
Economic mobility is lower in the US than in most other developed countries.
You make some excellent points. Our economic mantra has always been that "it takes money to make money" for as long as I can remember, and there haven't been a whole lot of recent rags to riches stories lately.
If given the space and time, I could also make the argument that our government has already been rendered mostly irrelevant - the real power comes from what we call the 1%, and that their hold on the country is the lie that one day, we could be rich too.
We have lords and ladies which we hold in reverence and awe. We don't call them lords and ladies though - we call them Mr Gates, Mr Buffet, Ms Walton.... yada yada.
(Before you conservatives start banging the thread for "spreading the wealth", understand that there's a very compelling reason to actually want better than the bowl of thin gruel we're told is better than anything on earth.)