[quote]"The American Dream", self-motivation, entrepreneurship and "pushing the frontier" are all good things IMHO.[/quote] Everything in moderation. Here in t

[quote]"The American Dream", self-motivation, entrepreneurship and "pushing the frontier" are all good things IMHO.[/quote] Everything in moderation. Here in the US, however, moderation has no place. It's all or nothing mentality, like a fricking casino bet. Fair compensation for effort is dead when everybody is taking risks for maximum rewards and training their work-force to pander the lowest common denominator... the hard sell. Everywhere I go retail workers are badgering me to upsell, banks & home improvement chains are the worst, IMO. That's what happens when there are 100's of candidates for every job opening and all the competition has been killed off by the oligops. Everywhere you go in the US, if it's a large enough customer base, it's oligops all the way down.