[_delirium]

I'm not sure it's even true with respect to American society, or at least consistently true. A meritocratic-free-market mindset that supports providing education as an equal starting point is fairly common. A slogan sometimes used is "equal opportunities, not equal outcomes". It's used in various contexts, but in one context, the argument is that kids have the right to expect an education that starts them out on a level playing field, but not the right to any particular salary when they grow up. So this view would support free schools, but not support redistributive income taxes.

The negative way of phrasing that same sentiment would be: "if you don't get ahead, you have no one to blame but yourself, because you could've paid more attention in school or gone and read up in the library". It's easier to make that argument if there are in fact free schools and libraries, so that we can claim that everyone had that opportunity, and therefore if they didn't use it, it was their fault.