[quanticle]

They're not suggesting Germans adopt an American-style work culture, but an American-style tolerance for risk and failure.

I'm increasingly convinced that having the one automatically brings in the other. The hallmark of the American attitude is that you, and only you are responsible for your own success. This means that if you're not succeeding, it's because you're not working hard enough. It leads to a "rat race" culture, where everyone works harder to be labeled as a "go-getter", but all it ends up actually doing is raising the baseline expectation for how much work you're supposed to do.

[kintamanimatt]

I'm not sure how tolerance for risk and failure breeds either a Calvinistic work ethic or rugged individualism. These things likely developed in tandem because of America's history, but I'd assert that one can exist without the other. I'd love to be shown why I'm wrong though, if that's the case.