After reading this book, what do you conclude is required to enable other young people in rough environments to achieve? Who is ultimately responsible for providing those opportunities? The individual? The family? The state?

This really depends on one's political and social philosophy in life. The American ideal seems to favour individualism over community. The idea that an individual can work hard and beat the odds without financial help from the system is often romanticized. Ultimately the parents are responsible for their children. Canada is somewhere in the middle, there are more social supports but taxes are higher and the type of support varies. I spent time in Sweden where all people are well taken care from "cradle to grave". The taxes are very high and there are abuses of the system. So, I suppose you have to examine your own values when it comes to community support vs individual determination.