I think the US culture of exceptionalism puts individuals in 2 simple buckets, winners and losers. I think everyone wants to be a winner and then not improve th

I think the US culture of exceptionalism puts individuals in 2 simple buckets, winners and losers. I think everyone wants to be a winner and then not improve the overall system but to look down on the 'losers' and signal 'success' status. The idea that they won't be able to validate themselves and their 'specialness' in this way makes them subservient to the status-quo, vulnerable to hubris and immune to the problems of inequality. Do we have a social identity because we seem to predominatly seek validation and identity from our work. This in group out group is an integral part of US culture and this base survival of the fittest 'superman' ideology is inherent in a frontier type economy exploiting new resources. The system is fine tuned to exploitation but what happens when there are no resources to exploit. The US problem goes way beyond mere capitalism and communism. At some point you would need to build a society that values people independently of their work, success or money or you run the risk of creating a modern exploitative unfeeling dystopia. A lot of these discussions especially here are marked by a distinct lack of emphathy, dehumanization and blame the victims mentality that a quick reading of the evolution of political, social and economic systems from feudalism till now will quickly dispel. Power concentrates itself.