Equality is a red herring. All a democratic society can offer is equality of opportunity. Unless one wants to go to North Korea, where people are equally miserable. There is always a tradeoff between equality and liberty. The balance is equality of opportunity. Society can do its part here, and Ireland has done a lot. Bad parenting has a lot to answer for though, and we need to ask the hard questions rather than running off blaming 'society' for the problems of individuals.