>Hi Walter,
>
>I want to reply to your long message, if I may.
>
>A lot of what you say about American political system is true, unfortunately. The tone of your message, however, is arrogant and condescending, instead of constructive.
>
>But as a person who lived in Eastern Europe and Western Europe (I worked in Italy), and now living in the USA for many year (2 years actually in New Orleans), I can tell you this. If I can make a generalization, based on my experience, american people are BY FAR nicer, more generous, kinder and more warm people than europians. So I guess, these are the choices we make.

Having worked in three countries (and not counting the various names and transformations of my own country) I can say that Americans, as individuals, are great people, and mostly well intended. OK, sometimes you get a feeling they're talking to you as if you've come from some troglodite culture, but that disperses after a few sentences. I've seen some Europeans (specially German border officers) who obviously despise anything coming from south of München, but then there were some individuals in the US embassy who weren't any better - and then the others showed every respect. So we can't really generalise easily; it's all personal experiences, where you are and who you're dealing with.

As to the warmth - it's very hard to discern. As long as you have no business relationship, any American I've met is quite personable, but then if there's a way he can get money out of you, all bets are off. I've met people here who were very friendly, but then somehow always managed to prove that those extra few hundred were theirs. OTOH, "we may be brothers, but our [money]bags aren't sisters" is a Serbian proverb.

And it's actually easier to strike a conversation with a complete stranger in USA, Hungary, Serbia and Russia than in Germany (can't speak about Netherlands, I was there for only three days, and always with friends). The exception there is if you're walking a dog, then any other dog owner feels obliged to talk with you - about dogs, of course.

The infighting within an enterprise is about equally bad in all places I've seen (including stories I heard from colleagues and customers). However, this is where Americans seem to be more trigger-happy, more ready to play dirty. It could also be my small sample - in how many places can you work in a single lifetime?

All in all, my jury is still out on this, and will probably stay out.