...nor has Bill Gates or Malcom Forbes gone there. (Honorable mention goes to Paul Allen for backing Burt Rutan.)

It's interesting that you should pick as your example America's last great collective achievement (unless you count wars, but I like to think that [unless we have a fool in the Oval Office] wars should be fought only when absolutely necessary; the things we're forced to do don't count the way the things we choose to do count). It took the proverbial army of half a million engineers and technicians, working as a team, spending money that Tom would claim was stolen at gunpoint from the American taxpayer, to pull it off.

Why haven't Europeans gone to the Moon? Why haven't we gone back in three decades? They couldn't have done it in the '60s, but I think they could today; but they have no more incentive to go than we do, now.

Ahem...let's not forget the world's up-and-coming newcomer in space, China. They have plans to go to the Moon, despite having a Communist political-economic system, and I expect they'll succeed.

In fact, history seems to show that going to the Moon requires the collective will and action of an entire nation. Score one for collectivism.

The interesting thing about the supposed tradeoff between professional life and the rest of life is that Europeans have more choice in the matter. A workaholic can still give himself a heart attack by working long hours, but that's a personal choice. In America, the system's designed to relentlessly pressure people into performing by threatening them with poverty and even death (through lack of medical insurance) for failure to run fast enough on the treadmill. American families are stressed by the need for both parents to work to make ends meet, and the feeling that they have no choice but to run hard to keep up. No kidding you observed Europeans who seemed more content! They get to spend time with their families if they want to. Isn't it ironic that conservatives in America champion "family values" while celebrating a system that puts tremendous pressure on families?

I guess it really comes down to your personal beliefs and priorities... what is more important to you? Professional success, or just being happy- the two are usually, but not always, in conflict...

That's a very American attitude, but I'm trying to point out that it needn't be that way--that that feeling is a consequence of an arbitrary twist of the dial controlling the ratio of individual success versus general societal welfare. The ideal society would be one in which people can be personally happy and professionally fulfilled at the same time, and judging by the outcomes, it seems that the European setting is more effective than the American setting.

I have no judgements on either personal philosophy, both are valid and quite frankly, I haven't really settled on one or the other myself... At almost 33, I guess I should have by now.

Why can't you have both?