> (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault. I am an American living overseas, and possibly one of the most offensive things anyone has said to me here is "you should lower your expectations"

stating this as a "fact" about americans as an american helps feed the fact that a lot of people see americans as obnoxious, but being as you are i also assume you dont care

what you might care about, maybe, are the following questions:

what is the average success rate of expectations?

is the playing field even for everyone?

is this expectation to aim high contributing to societal stress, including high crime rates?

maybe, just maybe, people with massive individualistic ambitions have great potential to become parasites on a greater society

i think this comes down to the view "work to live" vs "live to work". for me it is a much greater success having a stable functioning family then it is to found a new google or be the next potus. the latter to me is honestly boring and people ascribing to the latter view just cant handle the actual fact that there are some things money cant buy

of course, none of what im saying should be understood as "ambition is bad". but, as almost everything in life, balance and healthy doses is key, not XXL

nor of course that everything that comes from the american lifestyle is bad. for example i find the european obsession with titles absolutely retarded, and i think american (and aussie!) culture does alot to see through that