I came across this link quite a while back. I haven’t read through everything in here yet. However, a lot of what I have read is interesting to me because I had very similar thoughts when I was stationed in Germany for three years.
One of the things that I always found interesting is how Europeans consider the USA to be a country without culture. That is really strange position for them considering that they watch our movies, listen to our music and read our literature. For expample, think about the influence blues music has had on groups like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. I think that maybe they mean we are not as culturally refined, whatever. I don’t necessarily agree, we like classical music, we like art, we like good food, wine and beer. However, in our culture practicality rules and I think the Europeans have a hard time grasping that. Yes we consider aesthetics, but not at the expense of practicality.