side note: I'm a teacher and I work for corporate America....I guess I get to go to Michelle Obama and tell her that someone can do BOTH

I think she'd respond that there is a difference between a (school) teacher and a trainer. Perhaps she'd also point out that she and her husband could have had all the trappings of "success" including 8-figure-bonuses and corporate jets, but chose to give it up... so why would she be hateful or jealous of people who still aspire to those things?

Seems to me that the deep disconnect here is philosophical- a basic difference in the perception of "meaning of life." A generation of us became accustomed to the idea that the meaning of life is to reward ourselves at every opportunity with possessions and rights and the Devil take the hindmost, because we believed that this is the Capitalist way. But it isn't. Capitalism is about progress and about providing useful service, after which the $ will flow. Too many of us became focused on the $ and started to believe we have a right to large incomes and privileges because we are simply superior, even if the service we provide isn't commensurate with the $ we demand. And the more we received, the more we wanted until service and $ were hardly connected at all. At a basic level, that's why the banking crisis occurred: because bankers could demand huge bonuses by taking ridiculous risks to deliver unbalanced short-term shareholder gains, with no concern for Capitalist value or consequences.

And so now the pendulum is swinging and our avarice will be seen for what it really is, most likely by the next generation that will be appalled by our selfishness. In our hearts, perhaps many of us know they are right.