Personal Responsibility? What's that?

In our short time in Belgium, I've noticed something I think is significant.

For whatever reason, people here are expected to think for themselves . . . or at least fend for themselves.

Here's what I mean.

I entered a store downtown just as the first snow was melting. The floor was a smooth tile and it was covered in water from people coming in and out with wet feet. The whole store floor was wet. There was no rug. No "Caution - Wet Floor" sign. Nothing.

I believe in the States, I would have seen rugs, signs, and probably somebody busily mopping up the water. Why?

So I wouldn't fall? Or so I wouldn't sue if I did fall?

Frankly, it's a hard call.

The house we live in has 4 sets of stairs averaging 9 stairs each. Some of the treads are much narrower than others and can be dangerous despite taking care to be careful.

We notified the previous tenant that he'd received some mail here. When he stopped by to pick it up, we chatted briefly about the house. He, his wife, and 2 year old son moved into the house 9 years ago. They had 2 more children and when they moved out, their youngest was 2 years old.

I asked if any of them had ever had an accident involving the stairs. He seemed surprised and said no they hadn't. I commented that I would have been so worried about such small children falling and he said "they knew how to do stairs before anything else and they didn't worry about what could happen".

Okay.

I mentioned in an earlier post that it's rare to see a STOP sign here. Most every intersection that doesn't have a traffic light has only a YIELD sign. The traffic moves quickly as you can imagine and drivers must be very alert at all times not only for other cars, but for the plethora of pedestrians and bikers.

Sorta like the Autobahn. Uh, don't go faster than you can manage? New concept.

Have we (and by we, I mean we Americans), gotten so accustomed to having others think for us that we can't think for ourselves? Is it all in our best interest?

Frankly, it's a hard call.