Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal, that we are all created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.
More than ever before, our society emphasized our science and innovation, but an equally important emphasis should on distributing the knowledge we had to those who needed.
The other thing is in order to take all the opinions and ideas seriously, people had to see each other as equal. And that's still is. It is still deep-rooted and it's still a part of the communication style.
The boss's existing connections will treat you as more of an equal; those desperate to get one degree of separation closer to the top dog will come begging.
They tend to think that inequality in incomes is more due to things you can affect, to your merit, to your effort, rather than to adverse or circumstances or luck.