Or perhaps only a society rich as rich as the U.S. can begin to question if total economic output is a noble metric that our brightest and ablest minds ought to

Or perhaps only a society rich as rich as the U.S. can begin to question if total economic output is a noble metric that our brightest and ablest minds ought to strive for or be awarded public accolade for. Perhaps it's only in disfunctional societies, possibly ones who've seen a lot of harm from communistic rhetoric, that they think in simple terms that those making a larger pie are still morally better than those who shrink the pie in the name of equality or morality. Perhaps that dichotomy isn't as relevant in the U.S., where the pie is already large and many further methods of expanding it don't actually benefit society and the metric of assuming those with a large slice must've also expanded the total size of the societal pie isn't holding up to scrutiny. My critique of your your critique aside, I agree that I don't personally feel under the thumb of billionaire oligarchs, though they clearly do unduly influence our legislative process to benefit themselves to a higher degree (corruption) than in Northern and Western European nations which we comapre ourselves to in terms of degree of liberty.