Americans have a comically distorted perspective on their history. They claim that their success/wealth on the world stage proves the superiority of their system. Yet they forget the history of how they got there. Of course you will be the wealthiest nation on the planet when:

- you steal a countless amount of labour from slaves and turn it into profits

- you steal a countless amount of land from native peoples and turn it into your own assets

- you never have to rebuild your industrial infrastructure because war has never hit your main land in any meaningful way

- you steal well being from the commons by being the largest contributor to CO2 in history and inciting climate change

Of course that is only a sample of issues...point is that it's hard to claim superiority of a system when the history is so intermingled with this kind of artificial lift.