McCullough drove home his central argument with this devastatingly logical observation. He pointed out that Americans have come to love accolades more than genuine achievement, and are happy to compromise standards if it means having something to put on the mantelpiece or leverage into a better position on the social totem pole. He illustrated his point with numbers: 3.2 million seniors graduating from 37,000 high schools means 37,000 valedictorians, 37,000 class presidents, and 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. Even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion people, there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. The math was both humbling and oddly comforting.