And don’t forget in your list the “top-heavy” aging population that’s we won’t have enough worker bees to support (or is that what you mean by “looming entitlement crisis”?), and which already begun to put a huge strain on our already strained health care system (and the ever growing problems of obesity/diabetes) – but the bright side is that cancer rates appear to be dropping!

Yes, I do think that things are better in some other countries (ie: the ones that are both fiscally responsible and at the same time socially responsible)