When did success become evil

I am not sure when it became bad to do well. I have watched the down hill slide of our country into mediocrity. The truly successful in our country have become something to look down upon. It has become the in thing to be a have not. This country was founded on the principals of hard work and personal responsibility, yet it seems that now they are considered the principals of a terrorist. I fear for the future of our children.

We have Soccer games with no scores so no one has to be the loser, and classrooms that are more interested in teaching tolerance than math and science. Our schools have put more importance on a simple nose piercing than a child's education. In our publicly funded schools our children are being taught not to question authority, taught to not stand out or be exceptional. We are teaching the individuality right out of our children, yet we all just put up with the horrible schools and make excuses for the broken system. Our teachers are being forced to teach under ridiculous rules and regulations to the point of taking the lessons down to the lowest common denominator.

In a country where one in five people are dependent on government assistance (not including government workers)¹, it seems an entitlement culture is being created and charged to our kids. With the national debt over 15 trillion dollars²and climbing, it seems that all our leaders want to do is enact more laws and programs costing us more money we have to borrow. The current government plan to pay off this debt is to take more from the top one percent of producers. This seems to me to be a punishment for doing well.

The smart kids are made fun of and bullied. If you do well at your job, people assume you are kissing up, or sleeping your way to the top, or even that you stepped on people on your way up the ladder. It can't be that your better at your job, or that you work harder; any success has to be luck or manipulation.

We used to put people who succeeded on a pedestal; we used to want to learn from them. It was an honor to work at a successful company, because you were going to learn from the best. Government jobs were for the mediocre, to be the best was to be hired by a private company/firm.

The American dream seems to be changing and not for the better. Our children are being brought up to believe that the “state” will take care of them. They are taught that being exceptional is cause for ridicule, that we have to toe the line and not upset the apple cart. The bright future that we wish for our children is being ripped from them and no one seems to notice.

1.http://www.myheritage.org/news/heritage-chart-shows-how-americans-dependency-on-government-continues-to-climb/

2.http://www.usdebtclock.org/