US citizen here, sounds like you have alraady figured it out:
And I know that America is a very individualistic culture that focuses on the self and the belief that everyone can achieve anything on their own.
This goes deep into the heart of the matter. A good portion of the population has been propagandized for literally decades that every man is an island and reliance on others is “pussy shit.” There is no conception of society. No one wants to fix society, they all want to become rich so the rules of society just stop applying to them.
Temporarily embarrassed millionaires billionaires and all that.
For those of us with empathy and understanding of how economics and international relations actually function, let me tell you, it is a nightmare on our mental health. A daily endless gaslighting by society that caring about people makes us weak. We often are literally denied opportunities to thrive because we aren’t following the right “script.” We will be passed over for jobs in favor of nepotism and social connections.
Like literally the entire fraternity/sorority culture in the US is for forging early business connections so you can be a useless fucking loser but still rise to the top.
That culture has lead to the worst, dumbest, and least competent running the entire fucking country.
A lot of days it really feels like it would just be easier to let this system fucking kill me and let it win.
Somehow, though, people like me continue living out of spite for what America is and what it represents.
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 1 week ago
It’s seems like USA’s culture rewards individual success above all else, hence successful people behaving like main protagonists, or even as of others were NPCs.
To be fair, other comments that speak about selection bias are also spot on: not all people there do commercial tourism, even domestically. The ones that do are successful enough to have that disposable income.