While browsing in a local bookstore, I overheard one counter girl talking to the other.  "It's a whole different culture," she was saying.  "You can't be the toe-tapping American.  Their pace is so much slower."

She was speaking of England, and I gather she'd recently vacationed or visited for some extended period of time.  "They do everything so much more slowly," she repeated.  "For instance, you wait forever at the bank, because that's how they do it.  But the trade for that is that everyone's quality of life increases."

It does? I wondered.  How does waiting forever at the bank, or on line in a store, increase my quality of life?

Reading my mind, the girl commented, "It puts less pressure on you as a person.  You don't feel as bad if you don't come through on your end, because everyone else is less likely to come through.  It's a lot easier on you."

That, of course, was the heart of it.  The reason that I expect other countries to suck is just that attitude;  we are easily the most productive people in the world.  America is built on a work ethic that is integral to capitalism:  that productive effort is essential to success in life.  Yes, this requires hard work -- and there are times when I don't particularly feel like going to the office.  Who's never felt that way?

What bothers me is just how seductive are the ideas expressed by that clerk.  Embrace a slovenly, slow-paced work ethic, an ethic that says it just doesn't matter if you don't "come through," and suddenly you can feel good about yourself.  You don't have to fulfill your obligations, because hey, nobody else feels really stressed over it.

Yes, it would be all to easy for us to embrace such mediocrity.  Far better it is to feel good about yourself amidst a mob of slackers than to feel guilty when you fail to do as you've said you'll do.  Far easier it is to believe that responsibilities just aren't important, than to feel that you must fulfill those responsibilities that you've accepted.