Except for a few things.
1. By the way, you must be an American citizen and be Anglo-Saxon to be applicable.
2. Oh, and by 'opportunity', we mean the freedom to try as hard as you can, not the freedom to actually succeed.
3. As long as you conform to the structure and hierarchy of our society.
Mantsios makes the case that there IS in fact a major, major class separation between the upper-class, the middle-class, and the lower-class. He doesn't expressly say that the rich are responsible for the plight of the poor, nor does he say that the rich exploit the poor. But he implies it.
The wealthiest 20% of Americans hold over four fifths of the moolah in America. This is a fact, you can find it on page 310 RA. If the rich hold all of the money, then, obviously, the poor don't have access to it. Because the rich have so much money, the big businesses cater to the rich. We see this in the comic strip. Because all the big businesses care about is the rich people, the poor are neglected. It's all really about focus. Those who want money, usually the businesses and services (i.e. police, education, grocery, etc), focus on the people who "matter" most, those with the most money. In fact, in the Tenderloin (a poor neighborhood in San Francisco) the police don't actually respond to a 911 call. I once talked to a man who had stories of family members walking across town to get to a phone that police care about just to report a gunshot wound or something of the sort.
So, to be a little more brief about it, the upper class doesn't necessarily exploit the poor per se, but it is mostly due to the rich that the poor in America are so poor.
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