> opportunity to succeed and thrive is not evenly distributed

That needs a discussion about how to distribute it not so much evenly to all people, but to all the right people. The approach of e.g. throwing more money to all underprivileged students has failed in the past (I believe it the Gates foundation ran such experiment). Perhaps it is lazy to handwave a problem away by giving everyone a little more opportunity. It is much more painstaking to find the gifted ones and give them a lot more opportunity. Another thing that is not often discussed is that privileged people also groom their average performers consistently until they rise above average, something that never happens for hte underprivileged.