No, this is apparently information that clashes strongly with your prior beliefs. The US is packed solid with underprivileged adults who came from underprivileged positions, and highly privileged adults who came from highly privileged positions - regardless of whether it has a dozen counterexamples.

https://osf.io/preprints/osf/tb3qz_v1

You don't even need to look for the count of billionaires. My grandparents were poor-as-dirt farmers. My dad's education stopped at high school. He even went to a one-room schoolhouse until he was 14.

My brother and I are both college educated and, while not "rich", have a lifestyle and income my grandparents could have only dreamed about.

It is truly painful to watch people preach learned helplessness through failure and destitution as the only possible outcome.

And need to compare with countries outside the US. It's misleading to try and talk about differences between states.

There are ~250 $1 million+ lottery winners in the US every year.

There are ~750 billionaires in total.

The average American has a better chance of becoming a billionaire through hard work and prudent investments if, at age 18, they decide to live in a cardboard box underneath a bridge and steal metals from construction sites to sell for cash to be used to purchase lottery tickets.

They can then win the multi-million-dollar prize and invest that wisely to reach billionaire status.

Easy! Why doesn't everyone do it?

Who are these billionaires from underprivileged backgrounds ?