> Nobody is under any obligation to interact with people around them, and nobody deserves to be shamed for wanting to live their own lives and let other people

> Nobody is under any obligation to interact with people around them, and nobody deserves to be shamed for wanting to live their own lives and let other people live theirs. This illustrates a pretty big cultural difference to me, as an Australian. The US is very big on individualism in what mostly seems to be an "every man for himself" kind of way. It's strong enough that I've seen people reject things that would be in their own interest solely because it removes a little of their autonomy (I talked to someone who rejected universal healthcare solely because they would no longer have the choice to have no healthcare at all). At home in Australia, we're not all perfect, we don't all love each other but we seem to be more happy to accept things that benefit us as a country (like healthcare, support for the disabled, unemployment support, consumer rights, employment regulation). We live our lives and we let others live theirs but I think we tend to help each other out a little more, knowing that we'll need help ourselves sometime.