As someone who worked in almost all industries/verticals, in the US, for over 35 years, to then retiring in Europe, I would say "so what"? When I look at what is truly more important, especially now that I have the time to learn and understand, where I am now (including really intensive work, to European standards - infra security for crypto, which I "tested" out of curiosity, for a few months, as a project, upon arrival), I'd say that not competing with the Joneses may not be that bad, after all. Let the Chinese and Americans rip each other apart, in the race for providing a path to transhumanism and whatever else Musk, Thiel, Andreesen and the rest of the gang are planning for themselves, while building the so much "envied" techno-feudalism for the rest, and rather enjoy the very little short time we have on Earth, to the maximum extent possible. Looking back, I deeply regret having missed a lot of things my new friends, of my age, cherish in their past, just to having made one order of magnitude more money than they did, while "enjoying" the heights of American techno. Race to the top? Or race to(wards) the/a bottom?