From my observations in the past two years living in Europe as a Canadian, it almost feels like a hopelessness due to the lack of social mobility here that causes those things.
Huh, Europe is pretty big - where are you? I moved from the US to Europe (Ireland) and I'd say social mobility _seems_ higher here. There's still a definite class structure, and access to good schools remains an issue, but if nothing else the low-paid are paid more here and the high-paid are paid less. And we're one of the most unequal countries in the EU!