It is, of course, a matter of opinion when I say that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world. You can slice “greatest” a number of different ways yielding different outcomes. My metrics are freedom, diversity, opportunity, quality of life, and global influence. They’re not the only metrics, and I could be persuaded that there are others that carry more importance. (In fact, feel free to add some in comments.)
Thanks to the Bill of Rights US citizens enjoy wide latitude in speech, religion, self-defense, personal privacy, assembly, and more. In terms of free speech alone, we can say or write things that would result in fines or jail time in Canada, Germany, and the UK. This can be hard for US citizens to believe, so used free speech we’ve become.
The US ranks very high diversity because as Bill Murray so eloquently put it in Stripes:
We’re all very different people. We’re not Watusi, we’re not Spartans. We’re Americans—with a capital ‘A,’ huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts!
Nowadays we can debate immigration, how much is too much, who we should or shouldn’t let in, etc., but what is undeniable is that our ethnic diversity has profoundly shaped the country and made it better in terms of culture, innovation, cuisine, entrepreneurship, and more. Why has this worked? The answer is related to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights: Pluralism. Because we all of rights, we can interact within a shared civic framework (ideally with mutual respect). This ideal, I would argue, is in fact central to American democracy.
I’m not sure I could’ve had my career in a different country. For example, France, at least in the ‘90s, required potential small business owners to have $10,000 (probably Euros or Francs) in the bank to start up. Those sorts of barriers are not conducive to allowing people to have their own businesses. The reverse is the case in the United States? Want to have a small business? Got an idea for one? Go for it. It’s exactly what an incredible number of immigrants do because it’s a common path to wealth. This type of opportunity—economic freedom, really—is core to America. In fact, if we define “small business” as having fewer than 500 employees, you’re talking about 99% of businesses in the US.
The quality of life in the United States is very high. We are an insanely wealthy nation, and should you doubt this, just go to your local supermarket. There, you will see plentiful food and food choices, and in the parking lot millions of dollars worth of vehicles. Virtually any street in America, and you’ll see millions of dollars (perhaps tens of millions) worth of homes. This is to say nothing of the material possessions within.
That the American lower class—not middle class, lower class—lives better than the kings and queens of 150 years ago. A quick list off the top of my head: electricity, modern plumbing, transportation, communication, healthcare and medicine, food access and variety, personal hygiene(!), entertainment, education, life expectancy, freedom and rights, comfort and climate control, scientific knowledge, social mobility…heck, even music on demand. If you could trade your life for that of a king 150 years ago you wouldn’t do it—you’d be crazy to do it. Much of this democratization of goods and services has to do with the virtues of capitalism, but that’s a feature of America too.
US global influence is undeniable. We span the globe in pop culture, tech, global finance, and diplomatic leverage. (To say nothing of our military influence.) Whether this impact is positive or negative is likely in the eye of the beholder (or who happens to be in the White House), but that America has consequence on the world stage is incontrovertible.
I, and so many others, are so lucky to live in this amazing country.