… and I do not find the word optimism. 😉

Haha. I opened the site again to paste you the text describing the optimism and guess what I found. You were right! There is no optimism mentioned in the US description. Actually, we read two different descriptions. You read about the US society which is an indulgent one and I read about the Bulgarian society which is a restrictive one. And none of the descriptions used the word optimism. They only made a connection between restrictive societies (like the Bulgarian) and pessimism.

Bulgaria has a very low score of 16 in this dimension, making it a strongly Restrained culture. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism.

Pessimism is something that I find very tiring - you can see and feel it everywhere here. Especially with the older generations. So, I kind of understand your ex-boss who wanted to move to the US. An optimistic society is a blessing. Makes everything look better. But it is what it is :) And things (mindsets) are slightly changing here.

P.S. I wasn't aware that drug abuse is so high in the US. That was a surprise to me. To be honest, I expected shooting and murder to be high because of the weapon permission. Weapons... this is something that is very curious about US culture in my opinion.