> It shouldn't be about squeezing every last ounce out of an employee

Apologies for nitpicking, but this statement comes up from time to time and I think it's one that has to be evaluated from both sides to understand it. From my perspective: I was the child of a (very successful) entrepreneur. Around 2006-2008, my dad's company was sold out from under him[0] and he chose to open up an identical business, up the road, in an attempt to continue doing the work he was doing at the last place (and ultimately shut them down[1]). The first several of those years, he received no paycheck. He had 9 people employed by him (all getting paid) but needed about 12, so he worked nearly every hour he wasn't asleep.

At least as far as his business was concerned, if every one of those 9 employees weren't giving everything that was expected of them[2], they'd have failed. Really, they should have failed--my dad had underestimated how apprehensive the huge companies would be about working with a "brand new outfit" even though as far as the purchasing people were concerned, my dad was the last company they worked for. But after delivering early (and often himself[3]), he slowly proved that the last company really was all him).

   > that's what the American dream has become.

You're pretty right with this. The American Dream got warped when we all decided the only way to "make it" was to work for someone. Don't get me wrong -- it's what I do, and I'm perfectly happy with that. My Dad's life is a great example of the American Dream, but at times it was a hell of a nightmare. The one consistent thing throughout is that my Dad worked hard. I don't think it would have mattered what kind of business he started -- he would have been successful -- honestly, the product he sold was lubrication systems for (mostly American) automotive manufacturers. Running this business was my Dad's passion, but I don't think it was his dream in life to be the best provider of butter for hardware. Basically, the dream was supposed to be "you can be wealthy/successful/etc without the rest of us getting in the way. The law should keep others from stealing from/cheating you but don't expect help, and at least some of us won't be happy if you make it." I choose to be an employee of a company doing cool things and I get a large reduction in the risk associated with launching/creating new products while accepting a lower salary for that consistency. I've watched my Dad do it multiple times and I believe I could start a business and make much more. I've got 4 kids. I don't want the hours or the risk.

[0] He received no compensation after the lawyers got their take.

[1] Several years later he purchased the old company back from the larger outfit that had originally purchased it. They remaining employees were let go -- the previous owner was planning on shutting down the operation as it was and there was enough bad blood built up over the years that the staff likely would have preferred to collect unemployment than just quit.

[2] My dad didn't handle operations/staff, he was sales/financials, they paid hourly and never played games with overtime (the majority owner of the last place tried that with a secretary ... who sued them with years of logged hours for documentation) and as far as I know, they laid all of one person off (and they agonized for weeks over it).

[3] He likes to tell a story about meeting with a plant manager at 3:00 AM. I'm going to butcher the story, but the manager, expecting that my dad was a lowly delivery guy for his company, started griping about how awful the boss must be for making him drive 150 miles in the middle of the night to deliver an order that was supposed to be there at 5:00 PM (he was rarely late, but it happens). I can't remember how it went down, but I'm sure the guy was shocked when he found out that my Dad was the son-of-a-bitch owner. :)