As a society, we've just... given up. And the reason is very clear: concentration of wealth. When we see people who are millions of times as wealthy as we are who obviously haven't contributed millions of times as much as we have, we naturally and rightly ask why we should bother doing any more than we have to to avoid getting fired.
Like, I *could* try getting promoted, but to get promoted I have to *already* be working at the next level, and it's not like I can claw that effort back if I work hard and don't get promoted.
