I've always thought of ear plugs as the quintessentially American solution to the problem. Here we have people tragedying all over the commons, and the solution is for individuals to all individually purchase a mitigation for themselves, instead of attempting to prevent the problem in the first place. Same for water pollution. Problem: the water supply is polluted. Americanized solution: Everyone needs to buy filters for their tap or boil their water. Real solution: Regulation to prevent the pollution in the first place.
It's worse - if someone has a loud party late at night or plays music loudly and you ask them to turn it down, you're the bad one for imposing and butting into someone's business.
