I don’t think that there is one best country. As I mentioned in my original post:
I think the point is that most people growing up in other countries don’t feel a need to rank every country and declare one “the best”. Although i did with for a Swedish company for a while that was pretty sure Swedes managed companies and generally conducted business better than anyone else.
I did, after moving to Canada, compare it rather extensively with the US, and found Canada superior—just not in all areas. I did that comparison because I wanted to decide whether this was a temporary or permanent move.
Some things here are clearly worse, and my more limited experience of living in Europe shows that some things are better there than in either the US or Canada. Basically, if you spend enough time in different places, you find that there’s no single place that gives you the best of all available options. On balance, Canada is best for me of the limited options available. Most people don’t actually have options, so “best” is sort of immaterial. Where you gonna go, Joe?
Part of that is just the sheer size of the US. The per-capita immigration rate to Canada is three to four times higher than to the US. It’s stressing the ability of Canada’s infrastructure to absorb the influx.
Also, the capitalistic business-friendly nature of the US makes it a great place to start a business and try to get rich, but a highly capitalistic culture also comes with tremendous downsides. The US Gini index, a measure of wealth inequality, is one of the highest in the industrialized world.
I thought historically it was commercials for Chevrolet! 
Note that the Cato Institute was never cited in this thread. One poster mention ed it as it is one of several -
So Cato is entirely besides the point in this thread.
It also is the time when Americans “learned” that the USA is the best nation in the world, as the OP asked. Since America then (mostly White) was barely aware of some issues which loom large to us with 20/20 hindsight. We were also handing our Foreign aid hand over fist.
The IDF does not need US support for what it has does. The US provides only around 15% of the IDFs budget, and the big ticket item there is Missile Defense, which is hardly used vs Gaza. This has been discussed deeply and heavily in the P&E threads there. No need to go over it again here.
We arent. Who is? The Dems cheerfully admit there is a lot to work on and even the MAGAs- “Make America Great Again”.
Yeah, American is one of the 2 or 3 “Great Powers” on Earth, but the Great there refers to world power, not how nice it is to live there, because the other “Great Powers” are Russia and China, and thigs are way way worse for the people over in those two nations.
America is a pretty good place to live. Not “the Best”, no.
Not anymore. Not said in a few states and optional in all the others.
I was able to find- and I might have posted a cite once- that the USA is the most desired nation to immigrate to. That doesnt answer your questions about ratios etc, however.
I dunno what the hell the current administration is doing in the way of foreign aid, but the US used to send lots of aid to Zimbabwe- more than “free condoms” like over $400M a year. I have no idea what Zimbabwe did with it however.
The Cato Institute is very relevant here. As I pointed out earlier, but perhaps you didn’t notice, the US “freedom” ranking rises dramatically from 80th place right up to 15th place once the Cato statistics are factored in some mysterious fashion into the more impartial Freedom House rating. So right-wing shills think the mercenary relentlessly capitalist USA is the best place in the world? Whodathunk it? 
To be fair, they start doing it to kids before the kids know what the words mean.
It we mustn’t call it indoctrination.
The indoctrination for which “it” stands!
It’s a common property of self evident truths that they need to be reinforced daily or their self evident truthiness fades.
We’re just teaching children that our nation is united under a single deity, where are you people getting the idea that we are indoctrinating them?
No more of this nonsense or the sky man will smite our tribe!
I think the part most relevant to this thread is “with liberty and justice for all”.
And they’ll never use the word “indivisible” again.
If only it were remotely true.
Yeah, they really should give that pledge a good re-write.
I’m responding to this here as it seems more appropriate to this thread rather than the digression that somehow got started in the Stalin thread in GD.
There are two big problems with that attitude. Do you think that if a bright and capable Democrat was elected president in 2028, that everything would suddenly be alright again? Great damage isn’t repaired that quickly, and Trump is currently in the process of wreaking total havoc on important national institutions, poisoning international relations, and trying to undermine the electoral process itself. It may take a generation or more to rebuild international trust in the US, if it ever happens, and the Supreme Court will be politically skewed for decades.
The second problem is that there’s no guarantee of a Democratic victory in 2028, either in the presidential race or in Congress, especially with Trump and his cronies meddling with the electoral system. There’s at least an even chance that a lunatic like JD Vance could be the next president, assuming that Trump himself doesn’t try to run, on the same basis as most other things he’s been doing the last couple of years, that basis being “who’s gonna stop me?”. Regardless, Vance might be even worse, having similar far-right biases and authoritarian inclinations, but not disadvantaged by being ineffably stupid.
I don’t think Vance commands the same level of cult-like following that Trump does.
Other than that, I don’t know what to tell you. The way the current system works, Trump is out in a few years. Then the people elect someone new. Midterm elections are later this year. New people will be elected then. Maybe your candidate doesn’t win, but so be it. Hopefully people will pick better ones than they have now.
I’m not really sure what sort of “attitude” I’m supposed to have about it.
The problem isn’t Trump, the problem is America is the kind of place that produces enough people who will vote for Trump for president. Trump is a symptom of a deeply racist and corrupt society that does not value nor understand democracy and instead thinks that forcing children to say magical words is how you ensure prosperity. America is simply not part of the developed world.
Rather than “best”, much of the discussion here views the US as “bad.” This is supported by a news graphic that shocked me, titled “Ranked: Where Child Poverty Is Highest in the OECD”
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-where-child-poverty-is-highest-in-the-oecd/
It shows the percentage of children (ages 0-17) of each OECD country living in poverty (below half the country’s median income). Two of the highest income countries, Ireland (6.8%) and Norway (6.9%) have especially low child poverty.
At the other end of the chart, the four worst OECD countries for child poverty are Costa Rica (29.6%), Israel (23.2%), Spain (21.5%) and USA (21.1%). Shame!
You left out “…male, straight and not disabled..”