[untenured]

I wouldn't exaggerate the "Americans are more polite" argument. One time in Osaka outside the wrong train station I asked a guy going in, in very primitive Japanese, how to get to the one I wanted. He told me very patiently. But what was really surprising is that about five minutes later he turned around and tracked me down, presumably missing his train, to tell me he had given me directions to a station on a different line, and then gave me proper directions.

People openly discuss politics, the economy, and, most astoundingly, they vote. Voting and working, words almost forgotten in Europe, seem to be basis of American society.

My understanding is that turnout rates are higher in most European countries than the U.S., but I could be mistaken. Certainly the idea of active citizenship is something that some Americans (but fewer over time IMHO) take very seriously next to Europe. Democracy, or republicanism if you prefer, is the secular religion of many of us.

For a European it is surprising that here hard work is considered something of which to be proud, not ashamed.

This I absolutely agree with. There was a Freeper, whose name unfortunately escapes me, who became terminally ill. I remember him saying that one of the last things he wanted to accomplish was to get his software business up and running. This is a profoundly American thing to do. Like many Americans, he believed that commerce in general and his work in particular was something valuable to society, not something to escape from the way Europeans treat it.

Immigration, Then and Now.

[John O]

There was a Freeper, whose name unfortunately escapes me, who became terminally ill. I remember him saying that one of the last things he wanted to accomplish was to get his software business up and running. This is a profoundly American thing to do. Like many Americans, he believed that commerce in general and his work in particular was something valuable to society, not something to escape from the way Europeans treat it.

I think you are referring to harpseal. Laz, do I have this right?