There's another important metric that ought to be included in the discussion: corruption. It's no coincidence that the 19 nations sitting above the USA in the ranking table presented in this article are all far less corrupt than the USA. As Mark Twain pointed out well over 120 years ago, "America has the best government money can buy."

As US politicians are permanently for sale in order to fund the next election campaign, the result is legislation intended to benefit those who contribute most. And so legislation distorts markets, incentives, and prices. The Republican Party is actually far more corrupt than the Democratic Party (perhaps because the Dems are too busy self-harming to get their act together) even as it pretends to be in favor of more market-based approaches.

In the end, one of the major challenges for the USA will be to move from the present Disneyesque beliefs of hugely ignorant citizens, and more toward better-informed perspectives.

Which, as we all know, is never going to happen.