Success in America is an endangered species. Business bonuses are under heightened scrutiny; soon, making the right picks in the stock market or earning more than $200,000 per year will mean higher taxes; even the occasional business trips that “happened in Vegas” to reward top sales producers doesn’t “stay in Vegas” anymore. They stay at home. “Junkets” like that fell victim to finger-wagging rebukes from the president himself. Why blow your money gambling if it can fund another government program?

This animus toward accomplishment is producing significant political consequences.  The February issue of Trends Magazine included an article titled, “The War on Achievement and its Building Backlash.”