To be fair, Americans have their own equally strong dysfunctions, and there's a lot of variance from state to state, industry to industry.

And the education system in the US is way less egalitarian and if you're talking about access to investment, etc. or jobs, proximity to an "Ivy League" school is super important blah blah blah.

I mean, it's a dangerous game to be playing stereotypes generally. But there's structurally economic factors at work.