Who Really Decides Our Fate? Tools for Understanding Class and Opportunity in North America

Why “Work Hard and You’ll Succeed” Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story—An Outsider’s Take on Class, Wealth, and Change

When I moved from China to Canada, I thought I understood what shapes a person’s future: hard work, maybe a bit of luck, and family support. But the longer I live here—and the more I watch how people talk about success or failure in America and Canada—the more I realize the story is a lot more complicated.

If we want to understand why society is so divided, how wealth gets distributed, and what real chances ordinary people have, we need more than just personal stories—we need tools for analyzing the system itself. Here’s my perspective as an outsider, drawing on what’s sometimes called “structural analysis” or “class analysis.”

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Surplus Value: Who Creates, Who Takes?

Have you ever noticed how a company’s profits can soar, CEOs earn tens of millions, but workers’ wages barely budge?
Why does most of the value end up at the top?

There’s a powerful idea behind this: surplus value.
In simple terms, it means most of the wealth workers create ends up with those who own companies, stocks, or real estate, while regular people get just a small piece. Think about Amazon warehouse workers—ten-hour shifts, huge profits, tiny paychecks. The majority of profit goes to shareholders and executives.

Fact:
In the last 20 years, U.S. worker productivity rose by over 30%, but average wages increased less than 10%. The top 1% of households nearly doubled their wealth (BLS).

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Structural Exploitation: It’s Not About Bad Bosses

Some people dislike the word “exploitation”—it sounds harsh or too political. But it’s not about “bad bosses.” It’s about how the whole distribution structure works.
If you don’t own a business, assets, or investments, you can only make money by selling your time and labor. The real profits, dividends, and power go to those with resources.