For every story of entrepreneurial success, there are countless others of failures. The vast majority of people are not just too dumb to see the opportunities, as you have arrogance to imply. They are well aware of the risks, and can't afford to take them.
Plus, an economy can't run on business founders alone. It requires workers that actually, you know, do the work, and who are willing to be paid for a less than that work is worth (you know, 'profit').
If anyone is living in an echo chamber, I assure you it is not the 99%. It's the smug 1% hoarding wealth and justifying it to themselves by thinking 'anyone could do this if they were as smart/hard working/enlightened as me!' while forgetting the luck and connections and old money that got them where they are.
So you really believe that everyone can become rich if they just put in the hard work? That's such a naive view that I don't even know where to start to debate it.
This reminds of a joke about drawing an owl: you first draw 2 vertical ovals, slightly superimposed, one bigger, one smaller. Then you draw a triangle on the smaller oval. Then you draw the rest of the owl.
Sure, you can't succeed if you don't try. But you also can't succeed if you don't have anything to eat, and for the vast, vast majority of people, trying is likely to make that a real problem.
