I'm glad we have high ceilings as a country, but I think we're a rich enough society that we can afford to have a much higher floor, too. Our problem is that we simply won't tax rich people or businesses. (I say this as a fairly well-off person myself, and as a business owner.)

I don't necessarily agree with your final point. People are incredibly motivated to take risks and try new things and to experiment with innovative business models. Just look at the web and the millions of creative things that people have put tons of time and effort into, often with no payment. It's not that money doesn't motivate people, it certainly does. I just think that people are creative about figuring out how to profit, and we don't need to create artificial monopolies and means of profit in order to motivate people to create. If there's a problem that exists in America, it's certainly not that there's a lack of ambitious innovators and creators.