What's the Difference?

I spent close to a quarter a century in the US of A (1987-2010) and loved most of the time there.  What I did not realize is the effect the stay and the American culture will have on me.  And I mean it in a positive way.  Now, back on the Old Continent I am going through a cultural shock even bigger, I think, than the one I experienced learning America.

What is so different and so shocking?

Two things strike me most here in Europe.  One - when I ride in a taxi and make a comment about current not so glorious economic situation I get silence.  Two – in conversations about small business, I almost always get the same question.  Are you serious?  They don’t have grants for start-ups?  No, they do not, as a rule.  It is called capitalism.  That means that you need to make it on your own in business.  Without subsidies, that is.