Comment by the_omegist

On a side note, I always thought the absence of "formal you" made english-speaking countries more laid-back. This is usually a good thing, because it makes ideas and information circulate more smoothly.

But like everything, it has some drawbacks : the constant need to level everything and to some kind of hypocrisy.

I have nothing to back my intuition on, just some Sapir-Whorfish reasoning...