Read the full text of President Obama's economic speech in Kansas

Inequality also distorts our democracy.  It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder.  (Applause.)  It leaves everyone else rightly suspicious that the system in Washington is rigged against them, that our elected representatives aren't looking out for the interests of most Americans.  

But there's an even more fundamental issue at stake.  This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that's at the very heart of America:  that this is a place where you can make it if you try.  We tell people -- we tell our kids -- that in this country, even if you're born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class.  We tell them that your children will have a chance to do even better than you do.  That's why immigrants from around the world historically have flocked to our shores.  

And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart, and the middle class has shrunk.  You know, a few years after World War II, a child who was born into poverty had a slightly better than 50-50 chance of becoming middle class as an adult.  By 1980, that chance had fallen to around 40 percent.  And if the trend of rising inequality over the last few decades continues, it's estimated that a child born today will only have a one-in-three chance of making it to the middle class -- 33 percent.  

It's heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal.  But the idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work?  That's inexcusable.  It is wrong.  (Applause.)  It flies in the face of everything that we stand for.  (Applause.)

Now, fortunately, that's not a future that we have to accept, because there's another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country -- a view that's truer to our history, a vision that's been embraced in the past by people of both parties for more than 200 years.
 
It's not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America.  It's not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all of society's problems.  It is a view that says in America we are greater together -- when everyone engages in fair play and everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share.  (Applause.)    

So what does that mean for restoring middle-class security in today's economy?  Well, it starts by making sure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success.  The truth is we'll never be able to compete with other countries when it comes to who's best at letting their businesses pay the lowest wages, who's best at busting unions, who's best at letting companies pollute as much as they want.  That's a race to the bottom that we can't win, and we shouldn't want to win that race.  (Applause.)  Those countries don't have a strong middle class.  They don't have our standard of living.  

The race we want to win, the race we can win is a race to the top -- the race for good jobs that pay well and offer middle-class security.  Businesses will create those jobs in countries with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers, the most advanced transportation and communication, the strongest commitment to research and technology.  

The world is shifting to an innovation economy and nobody does innovation better than America.  Nobody does it better.  (Applause.)  No one has better colleges.  Nobody has better universities.  Nobody has a greater diversity of talent and ingenuity.  No one's workers or entrepreneurs are more driven or more daring.  The things that have always been our strengths match up perfectly with the demands of the moment.