During President Bush's last visit to Japan, the press there mercilessly speculated on how the American trade deficit is due to the "laziness" of Americans. And when former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher came to lecture Taiwan, she felt able to opine that "the Chinese are natural-born businessmen." Yet since the 1980s Americans have been spending more time at work than Europeans.
曾幾何時，日本媒體在布希總統訪日時，毫不留情地直指美日貿易逆差，係美國人民「懶惰成性」所致；而英國前首相佘契爾夫人來華演講時，則聲稱中國人民是天生的生意人；台灣人個個忙著賺錢，而歐洲人卻盡顧著想過舒適的日子。