~10 months ago, national candidates trump & pence stated that free market capitalism had failed us.  

There's a number of flaws in the professor's OP- namely that, as you mentioned, he failed to offer any professorial solutions.  Instead, he casts stones at alleged class structures and the shoulder shrug of 'inherited wealth'.  

First- just because someone is born into wealth doesn't mean the person is mandated to live a life of gluttony & excess (current prez excluded of course).  Second, upward mobility of the middle class has been bludgeoned courtesy of automation in the industrial workplace.  Some 70+% of jobs are gone- period.  Not to CHINA or Mexico ... but to robotics.  Third- our younger generations, after observing the cutthroat mindset of corporate USA during the past two decades and the recent depression, realize that there is limited long term commitment from most employers.  So, if the business isn't locally owned or self-employed, how do our younger folk take the risk?