You're already offtopic -- though I think not as offtopic as you might seem to be.
You are correct, which is one reason why the US has had such a prolific history. On the other hand, as the US government (and army) grow, we are now going in the opposite direction of lacking security from said army.
I tend to agree with you, but there's another class of people that doesn't fit your high ambition/low ambition paradigm.
I don't know how to label these people, and they confuse me greatly, because I'm not one of them and don't understand their motivations. These are people for whom ambitions and motivations are unrelated to "career choice"
I've met a great many people who work fairly-routine/moderate-pay/low-stress jobs, who have no desire to do work any more mentally taxing, and who profess to "live outside of work."
Now, some of these people are just not ambitious or independent. But some really seem to be extremely passionate, ambitious people. Some of these people are the "cause people" -- people that are heavily involved in political campaigns, in "causes," do large amounts of volunteering. They seem to derive their fulfillment from this work, and the paid job is a means to the freedom to pursue these causes.
Yet a different class of these people are the "family-focussed." They work, they may volunteer, but they appear to derive their fulfillment from... well, to be blunt, from raising kids and helping/coaxing/celebrating/watching their kids grow and succeed.
I'm not suggesting at all that these two other alternatives are in any way "lesser" (or "greater" for that matter) -- nor am I suggesting that other people aren't interested in, or don't do these things.
But, to generalize from just one example, (everyone does it -- or at least, I do...) though I don't do much in the way of volunteering or raising of a family just now, even if I do either of these at a future date, I don't think I would ever define myself by these things. I would identify and define myself more by the contributions I make in, for lack of a better name, the financial marketplace. Since this is a forum of "the startup crowd," I imagine that most of you define yourselves similarly?
Anyway, I went on so long, I forgot to make my point, which was that some of these people are perfectly happy in a job where they are not expected to be ambitious, so that they can save their energy and ambition for the part of their life that matters to them. I do not understand this, but I have recently come to notice its existence. I thought I'd point it out, since we're talking about ambition and lack thereof.
Well, in one sense, it's much easier having no debt. Imagine trying to found a company if you owned a house with no mortgage, had a vegetable garden out back, and owed nobody anything.
Realistically, what are your living expenses... how much money do you really need to buy 3- 6- or even 48-months of your time?
Now imagine that you own no property of any sort, and have large loan payments that you have to make every month. How much money do you really need to buy even 3- or 6- months of your time.
The opportunity cost of starting the startup is roughly the same (adjustments for interest between the riskfree rate and your credit rating notwithstanding), but the actual number of dollars that have to come from somewhere is quite different indeed.
You are correct, which is one reason why the US has had such a prolific history. On the other hand, as the US government (and army) grow, we are now going in the opposite direction of lacking security from said army.