"How is that any different than seeing yourself as a temporarily embarrassed rock star, or astronaut, or breakthrough scientist, or famous artist, or successful entrepreneur?"

In Freaknomics they have a chapter titled "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?"[1] - the issue isn't that people are aspirational, it's that they treat success as a gladiatorial contest where there's only one winner and everyone else has to die for you to win. As opposed to "socialism" where everyone can succeed somewhat.

[1]http://freakonomics.com/books/freakonomics/chapter-excerpts/...