The proximity of loss

I was just thinking today, that living in an post-industrial age, where the distinction between classes have definitely been eroded, there is a greater sense of unease at falling from grace, as it were. I mean, let's go back a hundred years, and we'll find people are basically born into a particular level in society, so that if you were born a son of a banker, you could expect a comfortable life, materially, where-as if your father was a street sweeper, it was much more likely you would end up doing similar menial work, for not very much pay. Now of course, there is greater social mobility, and if you showed a particular talent for, say, computer programming, it would be very possible for you to become a well paid software engineer, even if your family background was poor. Opportunities like this exist today, although of course you still have to work damn hard to achieve your goals, especially if you come from a disadvantaged background. So, all very nice, but it also holds true that you could easily lose everything in one fell swoop. Say you tied up your savings in some risky derivatives on the stock exchange, and the markets suddenly collapsed, like that recently did, or that you were mortgaged to 125%, and you lost your job, house is repossessed, etc, you get the idea. You'll find yourself on the street, quite easily. Family broken up and sleeping in a cardboard box, like the growing number of homeless you see around Tokyo. It all seems very fragile, don't you think? But is this just the pay-off for living in a turbo charged capitalist world, where individual rights are gradually being ground away so as to fully worship mammon?