As a European this pissed me off a lot. Looking at it from the other perspective, it's an example of how an unhealthily competitive culture can lead to wastage

As a European this pissed me off a lot. Looking at it from the other perspective, it's an example of how an unhealthily competitive culture can lead to wastage; where everyone is forced to work harder to keep up with the competition, but as a result everyone has less time for culture, social life or sleep. Are you really any better off for it as a society? Where does the extra value go if there's no time to enjoy it? Also: a lot of hungry people chasing each other's tails in increasingly manic circles, does not necessarily make for technological innovation with lasting value to society. Some of it might, but I imagine a lot of it just contributes to the "technology treadmill", or to burn out, or to poor ideas conceived after 4 hours sleep... One other thing: a lot of european cities are great, beautiful places to live with a lot of culture going on. You don't pay a premium to live in these places if you want to spend 12 hours a day working (or at least if you do, you'll go work for a bank where the pay's much better).