In Canada, this is often a big issue. The fact that most of our people tune into US television instead of 'home-grown' programming is a thorn in the side of cultural nationalists. But hey, that's the outcome of fair competition. Even the CBC, (which is our government-owned 'national broadcast network'), competes with private stations to buy American programs.

I will admit that the enormity of the American presence, (10 times our population), has made us vulnerable to those who would define us as 'not like Americans'. As in "We manage to get through our days without carrying guns around with us, not like Americans. :eek:

As a musician, I notice how much of the music we listen to here comes from the US, but I also notice that we make a lot of good music here, that Americans are largely unaware of.

I'm acutely aware of the cultural differences, as well as the similarities, so I have what I think is a clearer frame of reference, but I recognise that my view is not that of a large number of my fellow Canadians.

So... yes, America might be said to have a major trade imbalance in terms of culture. The prevalent attitude seems to be that anything from beyond the contiguous 48 States is insignificant. That is less so among younger people, and I think we have The Web to thank for this.