Reflections
Success seems to be an illusory dream for me as I comfortably entered middle age earlier this year. As of late, though, it has become an obsession of mine to determine anecdotally if fate, luck, or other intangible factor plays a role in how one achieves success in this life. The "rugged individualism" is a unique worldview, which still dominates realpolitik in these United States. The vast majority of overworked, underpaid Americans would still obdurately subscribe to a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap, work-your-ass-to-the-bone, stoicism that traditionally defined us as Americans, and promised a rainbow at the end of the proverbial tunnel. That rainbow typically manifested in demonstrable wealth, material acquisition, or maybe just a better opportunity with which to attain those things if not for ourselves, then certainly for our progeny. As the twilight sets on this American empire, I often wonder what life would have been like had I had been born in an emerging economy,