"He went in the Navy to better himself and met my mom while serving his country. He got out, worked his way to the top of his chosen profession and instilled values in my brother and I of a similar nature. We both took seperate routes (him law enforcement, me white collar technical work) but are working our way to the tops of our profession. Nothing handed down. No hand outs. We didn't inheret anything from anywhere and every bit of money used to pay for our schooling came from student loans or our own income. "

Consider this: The Navy is only such a large and viable employer because of the pre-preeminence of American sea power financed by our enormous GDP, a GDP so large in part because we have benefited from the exploitative system. You already benefited from this before you ever started school: your father had an income which may not have been considered rich in the US but certainly was adequate - your brain is not underdeveloped because of malnutrition - you are not at risk for preventable diseases like cholera because the US has infrastructure that prevents this kind of problem and therefore saves you on medical cost. You received a student loan in large part because of indirect government action, and also because you are an American who will go to work in the American economy which is a large, good economy meaning the creditor believes you will be able to pay back. No such luck in a country with a non-existent GDP thanks to colonial exploitation.

So even if you paid back every penny, you had the fortune of being able to pay it back at all, or getting the loan in the first place, attributable in large degree to your race, and geographic location and nationality. You can also thank a history of unionization and rising standards of living in America for your income being what it is, and not a fraction of it. The rising standards of living rose because America and the West was getting rich by manufacturing things from raw materials they extracted for almost free from their coerced subjects.

So. Nothing handed out? Nothing handed down? Are you sure?

Before you object that America was not imperialist... well... I won't insult your intelligence by explaining that the USA was as much a part of that as any European power.