There's a difference between having the best X and living in the best country. A lot of nations have fantastic X but would widely not be considered anywhere close to the best place to live. In theory you could rank at #10 in all things desirable and still be the all-round "best" place.

The US is a good country and the citizens are indeed well off. We're not trending in a good direction on average and a lot of things need to be fixed, but it's still a very good place to live.

> but it's still a very good place to live.

Spend some time looking at the statistics [1] and you'll see that in almost all key areas, America ranks dead-last among developed countries, and is often more comparable to developing countries than developed ones.

Compared to undeveloped countries, you are right, America is a very good place to live for the average Joe on the street. Compared to developed countries, it is not.

[1] http://www.oecd.org/statistics/

America is a pretty good place to be above-average. Our good schools, for example, are pretty expensive, but they are really good. Same goes for high-end medical care, and, for that matter, taxes. It's a pretty nice place to be above-average, even though, yeah, for the average and below, you are probably right.

The thing, I think, that most of us miss is that, well (and I am in this category too,) most of us think of ourselves as above average.

As Steinbeck said, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

From my experiences, even just looking at my own feelings, this is absolutely something built into the American culture. I go on like I'm wealthy, and I do own a company with a very high revenue, but profit? what I actually get paid? well, I'm barely above average. But I still see myself as 'above average'

I think this explains most of the very American phenomina of poor folks voting for various policies that disproportionately favor rich folks.

I don't really see America ranking dead last among developed countries. I see it average in almost every statistic. Perhaps average in everything actually makes for a great country?

Can you be more specific with your assertions? Linking to a huge dump of statistics and making claims about them is a bit disingenuous. What makes it not good for an 'average joe' compared to developed countries?

Have a look at murder rates, poverty rates, heart disease rates, obesity rates

I think America is the best country in the world, that doesn't mean I don't think everything is broken or that America is the best at everything. I feel like America is certainly weak in certain key areas, but in many areas America cannot be beaten. Even on this site, PG has mentioned that it's hard to replicate the Valley in other countries.

Where do you live, might I ask? Have you spent significant time in America?

I've visited Jamaica, Scotland, England, France, Canada, and South Africa and interacted with expats from a number of countries and I've never had the impression that any developed nation would provide me a better quality of life. (Okay, I lie, when it comes to soccer/football, almost any European country would make my life better). In fact, in every country the people I've interacted with have universally complained about the same issues that are fundamentally broken in America (healthcare, immigration, education, etc).

Granted, I am most certainly a privileged American. I'm a white male. I have a masters degree, a job making more than median household income.

tl;dr: I'm not sure why you've decided to champion the cause that America is bad on HN today, certainly America has a lot of issues, but every country does.

> I think America is the best country in the world, that doesn't mean I don't think everything is broken or that America is the best at everything. I feel like America is certainly weak in certain key areas, but in many areas America cannot be beaten.

Most importantly, how are you trying to fix the areas that are broken? Are you even doing anything towards fixing them?

> Where do you live, might I ask? Have you spent significant time in America?

I'm in Canada these days, I lived a year on the West Coast of the US and a year on the East. I've spent another year driving all around, I've spent time in ~40 states.

> In fact, in every country the people I've interacted with have universally complained about the same issues that are fundamentally broken in America (healthcare, immigration, education, etc).

Right, because they're interested in constant improvement. It doesn't matter how good healthcare in Norway is (brilliant) - it can always be imrpoved upon.

That is the mentality that is lacking in America these days - the drive to constantly improve upon things are sometimes good and sometimes bad.

> I've never had the impression that any developed nation would provide me a better quality of life.

You're OK with more than double the chance of being murdered? or involved in a violent crime? You're fine with double the chance your kids or their friends will be born into poverty? You're happy your child is massively more likely to be obese and have serious medical complications because of that? How about incarceration rates? How about police violence rates? Student debt? (you don't even realize you graduate into servitude)

If you're happy, that's great. Other countries do it better.