I do agree and I think that parts of the issue are deeply ingrained in our brains and bodies. In the scope of things, we've only overcome the issue of providing ourselves with renewable and constant nourishment very recently. Perhaps with your background, you know more about this than me, but it seems like our basic need for calories has evolved into a want for calories, which is as you say, easily capitalized on.

Similarly, we have more opportunity to be lazy, because we are by-and-large "safe" or at least safe from predators and roving bands of similarly hungry humans looking to ensure their own survival.

So, yeah I think a lot of it is psychological, but it seems like it comes from many levels of the psyche.

In fact, maybe that's why I am the way I am; I always felt like I had to keep up (I'm about 4" shorter than him, 6'0" vs 5'8", a big difference, and something I've always been self conscious of), so I never gave up. Whereas in his case, he always was the leader and everything came naturally to him.

Yeah, I've heard many anecdotes similar to this and also read a few articles that seem to point to success as something that is most often achieved by people who earn it rather than those who are naturally talented. The US is kind of odd in that people are expected to work hard, but they also expect instant gratification. I think that's another thing that we need to address as a society.