We live in a capitalistic society, which has its merits and demerits, for in any society in which, in order to win, one must have a corresponding loser, than in such an environment, some people will develop into being quite exploitative of those that do have not the capacity or have not developed the maturity and wisdom, to comprehend when they are indeed getting the worse of an agreement, coerced or not. In addition, when the rules of the road, and therefore the law of the land, favors one group that has the political ear of those that are in power, through its legislative and executive branches, as well as the judicial branch reasoning from a basis that supports the status quo, those privileged groups of people, most definitely will increase their power and worth at the expense of those that are outside those advantageous power positions.
The above basically describes America, which has structured itself so as to clearly favor and to enable these incredibly powerful elite of privileged peoples and organizations to effectively rule the road for the primary benefit of themselves and to the overall detriment of the people. While, it is true that America in aggregate is a very rich nation, those massive riches are quite unequally shared, though, it must be said, the country has been able to hold itself together, primarily because of its vast diversity of the middle class, which has been able to achieve the American dream of owning their own property, having jobs of some satisfaction, and to appreciate vacations and the accouterments of success, though, many of those have recently been losing ground.
Regrettably, though, America disappointingly and unnecessarily also has a vast and persistent underclass, in which as reported by ucdavis.edu, "an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty." This underclass is not getting smaller in number, and there doesn't appear to be any tangible plans that will correct or ameliorate the current situation to make it better or to provide a pathway of sustainability for those that are poor and disadvantaged to find their way to a reasonable degree of prosperity.
The reason that the situation appears as hopeless as it really is, is that many businesses, advertisers, and certain individuals, understand that it is desirable to exploit other's ignorance and ineptitude so as to make money off of their given situations, rather than to see such developed into literate and mature individuals, preferring instead to see them subjected to the allure of drugs or alcohol, and/or their attendant suffering from illiteracy, sloth, dependency, gambling, and despair. The bottom line is it always far easier to make money off of someone that doesn't understand or can't comprehend the value of money, or the true value of the item so being sold.
A nation cannot grow together into a great nation worthy of universal respect, when it is subdivided into so many camps, that are so fundamentally different from one another, that they do not congregate one with another, in which the schools, justice, and opportunities are constructed in a way to favor the few and well placed, while reducing considerably the fair consideration and fair opportunity for others, and sadly but purposely so keeping a wide swath of Americans, ensconced within a permanent underclass that is deliberately oppressed and monitored, as opposed to actually providing them with liberty and their promised fair pursuit of happiness.