The US is a diverse place. The culture described by GP fits the wealthy and management classes well. Working class folks tend to be a lot more forthright, often to their detriment in many circumstances, but there are huge swathes of American culture in which folks speak frankly about basically everything.
Yes. If you aspire to "be somebody" then reputation management is important. But if your entire career will be spent working for employers who drug test and ask you if you've been in jail, but don't Google for your name, and you're not important to have the Google results of your name actually be about you anyway, then what is there to worry about?
