Agreed with the general sentiment. I just don't think that wearing or not wearing shoes in a house is best described as an attribute of culture. I'd bet it's more often a personal decision. I grant that there may be some groups for whom it's more common, or even named as part of a cultural tradition, but in any case those groups would be doing the same thing no matter what country they were in, so America has nothing to do with it.

This is my view as well after reading through this whole thread. Tons of “I’m X culture and we do Y with our shoes” followed by a reply along the lines of “well I’m X culture too and in my experience we never do Y, we actually do Z.” It seems like it really just comes down to individual choice and how your family or close relatives did it when you grew up.

(FWIW: midwestern American, I take my shoes off at the door usually but have no problem walking through the house with them if I’m e.g. grabbing something I need or going from the back yard to the basement. We have three dogs who are much dirtier than my shoes are going to be.)

There is more than one Midwestern culture.

Sure, but I think the lines are pretty blurry in modern day America. Furthermore, I certainly don’t think those blurry cultural lines in the Midwest are drawn neatly around the boundaries of whether one takes their shoes off indoors.