Comment by semilattice

I agree with that.

US is becoming a culture of 'Good enough'

This is very prevalent in Eastern Europe, near east, probably China and India, not sure. Certainly not Japan.

Culture - is what people do when nobody is watching (or they think that nobody is watching) (I am stealing this definition from somewhere else).

So changing from good-enough culture to 'We are closer to perfectionists, culturally' -- is a big change that would take generations.

To be honest -- I am not if there is a 'one thing' that would drive this, may be it is an instinct, something built-in, more prevalently, in specific ethnics groups but not in others? if it is an instinct, then it should be preservable during immigration. Are the Japanese when living for more than on generation in a 'good enough culture' preserving the perfectionist traits ?