National Greatness and the Character of Americans

I was renting a car last week and participated in a conversation at the rental counter with the branch manager and another customer. The manager was from a Middle Eastern country, although he didn't specify which one. He said, as immigrant Americans often do, that Americans are the kindest, most generous people in the world. He told us that if we hadn't lived anywhere else, we might not realize that. But in his view, Americans really are different. If he had one beef with Americans, it was how hard we work. His son and daughter-in-law had settled in France precisely because of the prohibitive American work ethic.