Yep. I've made this connection before although I wouldn't be surprised if people much smarter than me did it before, but America is the Sparta of the modern day. Sure, you can say Britain is as well but they've fully passed the torch onto us.

Although more subtle, it's disgusting just how eugenic this society is. Prohibitively expensive rent likely in no small part to "weed out the weaklings" and have them die homeless. The low paychecks because "the american worker is too tough for decadence", and the creeping militarization of everything, but that's a rant for another day. Almost everything feels like it is designed to make life so insufferable for the poors under the foolish idea that they're "toughening us up" or something.