What issues do you think are most important

[Occhidiangela]

Perhaps.  Exams breed brevity in LurkerLounge responses.  I think my points are sufficient to counter his ignorance.
Hmmmm... the working culture of Germany and Japan are very different from that of America.  Comparing the three may be dangerous - I think that some very different 'ethics' were at work in all three cases.  German and Japanese notions of work developed quite differently from those in Britain and the States and we see the results today in their corporatist industrial structures.   

In Britain, it was factory owners who modified existing notions of work, and not some inherent 'work ethic' that led to industrial relations of production. 

That's not what I am talking about, I am referring to an cultural norm.  A cultural norm that finds its voice is such poetry as

Work
Godbless the might of it
Work that springs from the heart's desire
Sets' the body and soul on fire!


Thus, my next point... 
The vaunted 'American work ethic' is, I would argue, of British inheritance. 
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And I'll argue that it is, or was, pick your era, a cultural norm. Alternatively, I could offer a different counter . . .

The vaunted 'American work ethic' is, I would argue, of British inheritance.

Or Scottish? ;)

Occhi