It all depends on what you define as success and what parameters you set for it. It also depends on whether you adopt a definition of success that is assigned to you or one that you define on your own.
Breeding and family could be one parameter. Most successful people have the most beautiful high-value partners, and procreation is something completely natural.
We feel bad because cooperation and pro-social behavior (including empathy) is inherently the natural state for us. The cutthroat, dog-eat-dog, hyper competitive, Sithian status quo is not the natural state and is something that is learned behavior from the capitalistic, corporate environment that we're all immersed in.
Why do you mention capitalism? It sure has its own problems, but human being "cutthroat, dog-eat-dog, hyper competitive" is something that has always been there, in all forms of past governments (that actually were way way worse)
The vast majority of us naturally have things such as empathy within us.
Males with empathy have no value, they are actually ridiculed ad mocked (sadly). Good "guys" end up very very bad. For foids instead, empathy is most often appreciated and rewarded.
The ones who don't are the psychopaths.
It's what needs to be done, to not end up suffering... especially for males. I dont like it either, but what can u do really?!?
Coincidentally, it turns out that the overwhelmingly majority of successful people at the top are exactly that: psychopaths. That's not a statement of resentment or jealousy, but an observable fact. The system we have in place rewards psychopaths who exploit people as game-theoretic assets to be evaluated, used, and discarded (if necessary).
As you said, it is very well rewarded by society. Foids for example, naturally look for someone that is strong enough to protect them and ensure resources to their family... and you can't do that, by being "a good guy".
If something like loneliness is a concern for you, then this kind of behavior is the epitome of it.
???? Successful people have good lives, still better than others at worst...
Society doesn't necessarily exploit the young, it's the other (few) people with selfish interests that impede on the interests of many others who do. "Society" isn't some thing that's out there. It's an abstract notion, like "government." Society is just the name we give to a social system that we all collectively agree to prop-up and put in place in order to participate in as a whole. Once we all agree to a system and agree to enter that contract, then that's when you have a "society." So if you construct a system which has an element of exploiting the young, by design, then your options are to participate in that society,
Your only choice imo, otherwise you end up socially segregated... with probably no job, or a shitty job
or seek to change that element of the system.
These things are just too big to chance, from one person perspective. If you try, you will end up hurting yourself...
You've communicated that you would submit to that system and play by the rules put in place that the "elites" are taking advantage of and reaping the rewards from. That is your prerogative, but it is not a universally optimal strategy across all human societies.
You have to "submit" to the system, otherwise you get all sorts of troubles.
In the end, I'd too like to live in a world where good is rewarded, but at the current time... it just isn't. I talk from experience here. Thinking otherwise is just denial of how the world really works, and that will bring me or you no good. Personally, I'd like it better to just tell kids the truth, doesnt matter how unpleasant, than to lie about how things were (wishful thinking), but actually arent