Thesis: The United States of America is the most exceptional country which currently exists.
American exceptionalism is often argued about as a proxy for how enthusiastic one is about this country, but I think this is the incorrect approach. One can factually determine whether a country is exceptional or typical. Whether it is a morally virtuous country is another question entirely, but I will say that I believe America to be essentially virtuous, and I think some objective measures on quality of life near indisputably support that moral claim which I will not be arguing now. To be ‘exceptional’ is to be outstandingly good, or just atypical on any metric, though generally it denotes positive qualities. ‘Great’ has a similar meaning: to be considerably above average in quality, eminence. I will use great and exceptional interchangeably. With something like population I cannot say it is good or not, but I will be using it as evidence for exceptionalism. Something like life expectancy does have a clear moral meaning behind it. I won’t be differentiating which metrics I think represent a moral plus and others which do not.
First, America’s physical land area is among the greatest of any nation. The United States has a total area (sum of land and internal water) of about 3.6 million square miles (another unique element I will not be elaborating on is the US’s use of the imperial measurement system). Russia is by far the largest country with a total area of 6.6 million square miles. Canada is second with about 3.9 million square miles and China is third with about 3.8. Of the about 200 countries, the USA comes 4th. Looking further down the list of countries by size comes Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Algeria, DRC, Denmark (with Greenland), Saudi Arabia, and Mexico to round out the top 15. The US is exceptional in terms of its physical size.
Of these 15 largest counties by size, most have a large chunk of their size in mostly useless land. Russia is dominated by vast freezing Siberia, Canada too is dominated by enormous boreal forests and unusable frozen tundra. Only 6% of China’s population lives west of the Heihe–Tengchong Line which comprises 57% of its territory. Abou 40% of Brazil is covered by the enormous impenetrable Amazon rainforest, about the same percent of the DRC is the Congo rainforest. Australia is almost all empty outback, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Denmark’s Greenland too are mostly desert. Northern Mexico is mostly empty, likewise with southern Argentina. India is exceptional in that it is large and almost all made of usable land. The United States too is primarily usable land. Though Alaska is big, it comprises only ~17% of US land area. There are also large deserts in the west, but they are not as dominating or isolating as most other countries on this list. Of large countries, the US is unusually not dominated by useless land.
In the same vein, the United States has lots of cultivated land, the second most in the world. About 650,000 square miles of land in the US are cultivated, or about the same size as Alaska. India comes in first with about 730,000 square miles. Russia [surprisingly to me] is third with about 490,000, China is fourth with just slightly less, and Brazil has about 310,000. The next five countries are Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Argentina. On the size of a country’s cultivated land, the US comes second out of two hundred. That seems pretty great to me.
Additionally in terms of size, the water the US controls is very large. The exclusive economic zone waters of the USA are the second largest in the world, covering nearly 4.4 million square miles. Only France [surprisingly] has more with about 4.5 million square miles thanks largely to its control of French Polynesia and New Caledonia and some other islands. I can’t find any rankings of EEZ size except for these top two, but China has only about 340,000 square miles of undisputed EEZ, Indonesia’s is ~2.4 million, Japan’s is ~1.7 millions, Russia’s is ~3.4 million (most of which is unusably frozen), and Canada’s is ~2.2 million. The US solidly possess the second largest territorial waters claim.
America’s land is unique for its climatic and environmental diversity. The United States has 26 different Koppen Climate zones, the most of any country. China is second with 18, India next with 16. Tied for 4th is Mexico and Peru with 13, then Bolivia with 12, and South Africa with 11. Australia, Colombia, Ecuador, Nepal, Russia, and Turkey are tied for 8th with 10 unique zones. [interesting to see Ecuador and Nepal] Think of it, what other countries have glacial, hot desert, cold desert, dense forests, and mediterranean climates just to name a few? What other country has Manatees and Moose? California alone has both extensive vineyards and rice paddy fields. The US’s climatic diversity is especially seen when considering its territories, which include tropical American Samoa and Puerto Rico. The United States is firmly in first among any country when it comes to climatic diversity.
Additionally the United States is one of seventeen ‘megadiverse countries,’ meaning it is home to a great diversity of species of life. Though it is not the highest on this list, most others on the list get their diversity from their jungles, but lacking substantial jungles, the United States is dissimilar from countries like Brazil, DRC, Indonesia, Peru, Philliples, Venezuela, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and others on this list.
Here is one point where America is interesting for being at neither extreme: population density. I included this point but I understand why it may not be considered a supporting argument for ‘exceptional.’ China has 385 people per square mile, India has 1,066, Indonesia has 363, Mexico has 166, Pakistan has 690, Japan has 872, Germany has 603, the UK has 717, France has 305, Italy has 521, and South Korea has 1,323. The United States has 88 people per square mile. It is similar to the DRC with 93, Brazil with 64, or Venezuela with 82. Russia is much lower with 22, Canada has 10, and Australia has 8. This certainly is no strong supporting argument, but I think it is interesting and good that the United States is not crowded like India or England nor empty like Canada or Australia. It has the density of Manhattan and swaths of land ten times the size of Manhattan not populated by a single soul.
In terms of the value of resources a country possesses, the United States is second. Russia comes first with an estimated natural resource value of $75 trillion, the United States is second possessing $45 trillion. Saudi Arabia comes next with ~$35T, then Canada with ~$35T, Iran with ~$27T, China with ~$23T, Brazil with ~$22T, Australia with ~$20, ~$16T, and Venezuela with ~$14T. I’m surprised the DRC isn’t on this list, but I think it probably ought to be. This is an enormous sum mostly built into the land which America possesses. The literal land of The Land of Opportunity has enormous opportunities, which unlike Venezuela, the DRC, or other similar countries, are actually exploited successfully.
The United States is the largest producer of the two most important commodities, Oil and Natural Gas. Producing ~11.4 million barrels per day and ~840,000 million cubic meters respectively. In both cases the second largest producer is Russia with ~9.9 million barrels per day and ~670,000 million cubic meters. Saudi Arabia is the third largest oil producer with ~9.3 million barrels per day. Canada is fourth, then Iraq, then China, but each produces around 4 million barrels per day, significantly less than the top three. There is a similar dropoff with natural gas production, Iran comes third producing about a third of Russia, then Canada, Qatar, and China producing an average of about 165,000 million cubic meters annually. It could be argued that Saudi Arabia is the most important producer of oil as the head of OPEC, or that Russia is a more important producer of natural gas since it supplies much of Europe. Nevertheless, the US is indisputably important, whether it is number one in that regard isn’t certain, but it is objectively the largest producer. Also interestingly, the US does not have the same concentration of fossil fuel production that other nations have. Russia’s is mostly concentrated around the Ob river and in its south, China’s is largely in Xinjiang, Saudi Arabia's is mostly around Ghawar. The United States has large production in the Dakotas, Gulf Coast, inland Texas and Oklahoma, the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, and Pennsylvania and Ohio.
One natural resource which is less expendable and much more fungable than fossil fuels is gold. The US dominates here. The United States has about ~8,100 metric tons of gold reserves. One building in Kentucky alone has more gold than the second country, holding about ~4,100 metric tons to Germany’s ~3,400. The third through sixth places are filled by Italy, France, Russia, and China, who between ~2,500 and ~1,900 metric tons. The US also comes fourth behind China, Australia, and Russia in terms of gold production. Though the importance of gold can be debated, it most certainly is one ancient method of measuring wealth, and the US is by far at the top of the list.
The United states is also the largest producer of Lumber, producing ~480 million cubic meters of lumber per year compared to second place India and third place China each producing about 290 million. Further on the list is Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, DRC, and Nigeria. The United States is the fourth largest country by forest area with ~310 million hectares, coming behind Russia with ~815 million, Brazil with ~500 million, and Canada with ~350 million. Fifth is China with ~220 million. About 34% of the United States is covered by forest.
Of the other nations which top the lists of being most plentiful in natural resources, the United States is different in that only a small percent of its GDP comes from resource production. Less than 2% of US GDP is reliant on natural resources. Nearly 20% of Russia’s GDP is, almost half of Saudi Arabia’s is, about 10% of China’s is, and about 10% of Australia’s is. Of resource rich countries, the United States stands alone on having very little reliance on these resources for the makeup of its economy.
The next three points (Economy size, population, and economy per capita) will be the most important. First, the United States has the largest GDP of any country. It has a GDP of about $21 trillion dollars. Second largest is China, with about $15 trillion. Third is Japan with about $5 trillion. The entire European Union has a similar GDP to China. Unless the EU is considered a country- which it obviously ought not to be- China is the only country which even comes close to the economic output of the United States. To those who are confident in China’s overtaking the US in terms of GDP, I encourage you to read the essay I wrote about China. I’ll also mention that people thought the same of Japan in the 1990s. In 1995 Japan had an economy 71% the size of the United States. China’s economy is currently about 70% of the US’s. Obviously this is no argument in itself, but I mention it to point out that the US has surpassed strong economic competitors before. The United States is also the world's largest importer and the second largest importer. China comes first in exports and second in imports.
The raw size of the United States economy practically alone fulfills at least the title of the most important country in the world, but obviously that is not my sole point. The US is home to 122 of the largest 500 companies by revenue, compared to China’s 135, Japan’s 53, Germany’s 27, and the UK’s 22. Keep in mind that the largest of these US companies are Walmart (the largest company in the world by revenue, more than $½ trillion), Amazon, Apple, and CVS Health, whereas China’s top companies include State Grid, China National Petroleum, Sinopec Group, and China State Construction Engineering. China’s are state owned whereas the American companies are privately owned.
In terms of population, the United States ranks third with about 330 million. China comes first with more than 1.4 billion people, and India is second with nearly 1.4 billion. I think it’s useful to list the next twenty to fully explain this point. I'll name the country and then the approximate population in millions. Indonesia: 270; Pakistan: 230; Brazil: 214; Nigeria: 212; Bangladesh: 171; Russia: 146; Mexico: 126; Japan: 125; Ethiopia: 118; Philippines: 110; Egypt: 102; Vietnam: 98; DRC: 93; Iran: 85; Turkey: 84; Germany: 83; and France: 68. I could just finish there having stated the US is exceptional because it's the third most populated, and in combination with the previously mentioned points, it is the greatest, but of course I will not. The reason I listed all these countries was as a point of comparison for this next point.
The United States has a GDP per capita of about $65,000. No other top twenty country has nearly this GDP per capita. It isn’t until the 99th most populated country, Switzerland, that a country with a higher GDP per capita is found. Here is the key point: the United States has the greatest combination of population and wealth. Of the top twenty most populated countries, Germany- the 19th most populated country- comes closest to the United States in terms of economy per capita, about 30% less than the US. Japan and France- 11th and 20th most populated- have about 40% lower GDP per capita than the United States. These are the only highly populated countries with comparable GDP per capita to the US (except the UK which is the 21st most populated with about the same GDP per capita as France). Otherwise on the list, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey have less than a quarter the GDP per capita of the United States. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Iran have less than a tenth. India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnam, and the DRC don’t even have 1/20th the GDP per capita of the United States. By my (potentially totally imprecise) estimation, the United States accounts for about half of the population of the first world. Only Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, and Norway exceed the United States. These countries have a combined population similar to Florida. This is the key point, the US has quantity being the third most populous and quality being the seventh richest. (of course I don’t mean quality in any moral terms)
On the same plane of wealth, the United States has by far the largest cohort of very rich people. This data is slightly old, being from 2018, but I suspect that the pattern has only been accentuated since. An Ultra-High-Net-Worth-Individual, or UHNWI is someone with a net worth greater than $30 million. The United States has about 70,000 UHNWIs. Second place China is precipitously less, with ~16,000, then India with ~7,000, Germany with ~6,300, the UK with ~4,700, Japan with ~3,600, Italy with ~3,200, France and Canada with ~3,000, and Australia with ~2,900. I understand that many would consider this an injustice, but I think it is an important metric. Wealth is highly correlated with power, and since there is no good measure of power, I use wealth. I’d presume that most of the 70,000 UHNWIs are made of executives, business owners, celebrities, or people who have inherited the wealth of those people. The money possessed by each of these people was derived from some key significant amount of value they provided to the world. The United States has by far the greatest number of these high value producers. (one could find a number to multiply these numbers by to represent the high value producers who haven’t accumulated this much wealth). The United States is also home to the greatest number of billionaires and the absolute richest private citizen.
Returning to the raw size of the US’s economy, I think it’s useful to draw comparisons with other countries. California has a roughly equivalent GDP to France despite being only about 40% as populous. Brazil has about the same GDP as Texas and Alaska combined. Japan’s GDP is similar to the Northeast of the USA. The Midwest’s is similar to Germany. Mexico’s is similar to Florida plus Alabama. Italy’s is similar to the Western USA minus California. Germany’s is similar to the remaining midwestern states. Even individual metro areas are comparable to entire significant countries. The Chicago metro area has about the same GDP as Saudi Arabia. The Minneapolis metro is similar to Pakistan in terms of GDP despite having less than 1/50th as many people. The NYC metro has about the same size economy as Canada. The LA metro economy is similar in size to Indonesia. Just individual American metro areas are as economically important as giant countries. Regions of the US have equivalent production to some of the largest countries' economies.
Looking further at the cities of the United States further reveals how exceptional the country is. New York is certainly the most important American city, and arguably the most important in the world. It is home to the United Nations, the two stock exchanges which summed are larger than any in the rest of the world combined, the tallest building in the western hemisphere, and the second most skyscrapers of any city. If my calculations are correct, Manhattan alone has the highest economic output of any non-country island. Incredibly, even higher than Java which has 145 million people. New York is also ranked solidly in first by Long Finance- an organization which has done much more thorough research than I have- on its Global Financial Center Index. In the top twenty, the United States has six cities, the most of any country. Though the ranking is specifically focused on finance, it includes the factors of ‘Human Capital,’ ‘Business Environment,’ ‘Infrastructure,’ ‘Financial Sector Development,’ and ‘Reputation and General.’ Finance is the sector which runs the world, and America is home to the most important financial cities, and New York solidly sits atop certainly in terms of finance but arguably as the world's most important city generally.
Aside from New York, Los Angeles is the heart of the cinema industry in the country which blows every other country out the water in terms of revenue and production. More than 20,000 US movies are produced every year, grossing a total of nearly $600 billion. The UK comes second with about 4,000 movies and about $50 billion gross. Chicago, a city which no longer has a clear focus, has a metro area with a higher GDP than London’s. The San Francisco Bay Area has been the hub of innovation for America and the world for the past forty years despite only being home to about 7.7 million people, a population comparable to the Chinese city Hangzhou. The Boston area is home to the best universities in the world.
The United States also, as most geopolitics nerds are keenly aware of, has the world’s reserve currency. Nearly 90% of all daily currency trades are made to or from $USD. The Euro comes second with ~32%, then the Yen at around 17%, then the Pound Sterling fourth at ~13%. Since it's the biggest competitor for the spot of world’s most exceptional country, I’ll rip on China here briefly. China’s Renminbi makes up only about 4.3% of daily currency trades, smaller than Switzerland's Franc which has about 5%. The Hong Kong Dollar makes up about 3.5%. Though China is a huge player in international trade, it uses American money to make its exchanges. One city’s currency has nearly as much share of the global currency market as the world’s second largest economy. Being the global default currency gives the United States incredible bargaining power globally. This arguably is the keystone of global American hegemony.
America also has the strongest academic environment. The US is second in terms of number of published academic articles, having published about 425,000 in 2018 compared to China’s 530,000. India is third with ~135,000. Here’s an inference which I suspect is true but have no evidence for: though China has more published, a high percentage are practically useless, just published for status, whereas the US publications are more valuable per one. Here is one hint at why I drew that conclusion: the USA has by far the most number of Nobel laureates- a huge percent of which are/were immigrants- at 390. The UK is second with 134 and Germany is third with 109. China has only 8. The USA's dominance is no remnant of history: 8 of the 13 2021 nobel prize winners were American. This is largely due to the fact the higher education system of the United States is the best in the world. 27 of the top 50 colleges in the world as ranked by US News are in the United States. American colleges are unique for various reasons, all of which I cannot delve into: they are comparatively small, they have enormous endowments, and they’re very old just to name a few reasons. Though it certainly isn’t perfect, American Academia is the best in the world.
The US is the most accomplished athletic country in the world. It has accumulated 2,980 medals in the summer and winter Olympic games. 1,180 of these medals are gold. China comes in 7th with 742 total medals. The Soviet Union holds the second place having collected 1,204 medals, but it is no longer earning any more. This last year's 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics found the US continuing its athletic dominance with 113 total medals and 39 golds versus China’s 88 and 38. The United States has arguably the world’s best hockey teams. The most accomplished female tennis player is American. American women’s volleyball and gymnastics is consistently the best in the world. American baseball is the best in the world, though many of its ranks are not American born. American basketball is by far the best in the world. The USA has the best professional golfers. American football is- of course- dominated by Americans. Many other less popular sports like diving, handball, lacrosse, fishing, skating, darts, BMX, shooting, fighting sports, and running have strong American presence. Men’s soccer is one notable exception, being the most popular sport in the world, the United States has never been particularly accomplished with this sport, but American women’s soccer has been very successful. American cricket and table tennis too are not notable internationally.
In terms of individuals, America claims the most well known. Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, and Dwayne Johnson are just some Americans who are among the most recognized people in the world. No other country’s leaders are more well known than America’s, Barack Obama and Donald Trump are probably the most well known modern political figures. The most well known scientist ever: Albert Einstein, an American. The most well known business people, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerburg, are American. Musicians like Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande are incredibly popular, even outside of America. Nevermind the accomplishments of these individuals, their notoriety is exceptional. How many non-Indians can name a famous Indian? How many non-Chinese can name a famous Chinese? Most non-Americans know at least one famous American.
I briefly touched on American media while covering Los Angeles as a city, and I’ll continue here. As I cited then, America has by far the world's largest Cinema production by quantity and revenue. Many of the most watched movies of all time: Titanic, E.T., The Wizard of Oz, the Star Wars trilogies, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, the Marvel movies, and most every Disney movie, were produced in America and conjured up by Americans. The brands these movies have created are wide reaching and recognized throughout the world. Though Despacito takes first place and Shape of You takes second for the most streamed songs on YouTube, American songs See You Again, Uptown Funk, Sorry, Sugar, Roar, and Counting Stars are on the list of top ten most listened to songs. For most streamed songs on Spotify, more than half are by American artists. Other notable artists who are not American such as Drake, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, and Adele do or have lived at least partially in America and are signed to American labels. Though they don’t hold American citizenship, their connection to the United States is strong and notable. Looking at the top music charts in various countries, it's incredible how often American or ‘partially American’ artists rank highly in countries which don’t even speak English. Pop music from Latin America to Russia to Vietnam has its roots in American influence. Very few non-Indians view Indian media, same with China, Russia, and many other countries (interestingly many non Koreans and Japanese consume content from those countries). It also should be noted that Netflix, Apple, Youtube, and other major streaming platforms are based in the US. Even Spotify, which is headquartered in Stockholm, has more American than Swedish employees. US entertainment media is the most influential in the world.
The United States is home to the most notable business environment as well. 37 of the largest companies by market cap are American. The pioneer of personal technology devices, Apple is American. The manager of premier global search engine and streaming platform Google and its subsidiary YouTube, is American. The essential business software and cloud computing company Microsoft is American. The recent huge success story and pioneer of home delivery, Amazon, is American. The leader in electric vehicles, Tesla, is American. The largest social media platform, Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, is American. Five of the twenty largest private banks by total assets are American, notably Goldman Sachs which is the world’s key investment bank. The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is American. The creator of the first COVID vaccine, Pfizer, is American. The world's largest healthcare firms, CVS Health, UnitedHealth, and McKesson are American. US companies' total spending on research and development is more than any other country. American fast food brand McDonalds is the most widely eaten restaurant chain.
Similar to the hegemony of the $USD, the English language is the world's lingua franca largely due to America. Though Chinese is the most spoken first language, English is the most spoken language when accounting for second language speakers. A huge number of Indians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Germans, and Japanese speak English because it's a useful language. Certainly colonialism comes into play, but it's not like Vietnamese are learning French. People learn English because it's incredibly useful to be able to interact with Americans and American media.
It’s very important to mention the role of immigrants in America’s success story. America has by far the largest foriegn born population, with 50 million people compared to second place Russia with about 12 million. More than half of US Nobel prizes were achieved by immigrants. Tons of other notable contributors, such as Elon Musk, Nikola Tesla, and Albert Einstein were born outside of America but chose to pursue their accomplishments here. America is a country of immigrants like no other so almost all accomplishments can be attributed to people who personally or who’s recent ancestors chose to live here. The most economically successful Africans are African Americans, the most successful cohort of people ancestrally native to the American continents are American Native Americans. The highest earning Chinese are Chinese Americans. This pattern is true with almost every demographic, they are more economically successful in the United States. Perhaps the most successful moderately large demographic group in the world is Indian Americans, who have an incredible median household income of about $126,000. I think it is arguable that the United States is the most diverse country. (Some sources consider Papua New Guinea to be so, but I think we’re referring to different things). Linguistically for example, a country like India has more unique languages spoken than the USA, but the languages spoken are very similar, whereas the United States has large communities of speakers of very dissimilar languages, from Cantonese to French to Tamil to Uzbek. I can’t find any source which examines diversity in this way, but I think the US would probably be the most diverse country when disparity between groups is made relevant.
Now I’ll just list some more quick points, some of which don’t represent anything good, but all of which are unique. United States government organizations get the .gov domain ending, whereas other countries have for example .uk.gov. The world's hottest temperature ever was recorded in Calirofnia’s death valley, the longest cave is in Kentucky, the largest gorge is the Grand Canyon, the tallest mountain from base to peak is Mauna Kea, the great lakes are by far the largest body of freshwater by surface area and almost the largest body of freshwater by volume (behind lake Baikal). The US is home to by far the greatest number of pets, other countries just don’t have America’s pet culture or in some cases financial capability to support pets. The US is a huge outlier in its population’s possession of guns, being the only country with more guns than people and more guns total than the rest of the non-military world combined. The United States has the largest Air Force, and the second largest air force is possessed by the US Naval Fleet. The US has 11 aircraft carriers versus the second most having 2; generally its navy is the patroller of the seas and without competition. The US spends nearly 3 times as much on its military than second China. The US has sent the most people and things to space and is currently by far the leader in the aerospace industry. The market for Los Angeles mansions and Manhattan penthouses have no comparables anywhere in the world. Behind Australia, the US has the second largest average home size of any country. Few other countries so commonly live in homes with yards. The US attracts the largest amount of international investment, it also invests the most in other countries. The United States is by far the most charitable country, with 1.44% of its GDP being donated to charitable organizations compared to second place New Zealand's 0.79%, and further down India’s 0.37%, and China’s 0.03%. The organization of US suburbs is unlike any other urban structure. The US has more cars per capita than any other country with more than 10 million people. The US has the most number of embassies in its country and which it has in foriegn countries. The US has the most number of military bases. The United States is the 5th oldest country by date of last subordination. The US has the largest incarcerated population (though I’m skeptical on the honesty of second place China’s numbers). The US has the highest incarceration rate per capita. The United States has by far the most number of Wikipedia contributors. Americans consume more calories per capita than any other country. The United States writes dates with the month first unlike most others. American restaurants are unique in their use of obligatory tipping, having free refills at restaurants, customizable restaurant orders, providing take-home boxes, and putting lots of ice into water.
So far, I have used mostly objective and usually quantifiable evidence to argue that America is exceptional, but briefly I’ll give some not as black and white- but no less important or truthful- evidence. The United States was founded quite uniquely. It was the first significant nation to have been founded as the result of a successful revolution. It has gone on to inspire many revolutions in other countries since. It was the first modern country to have government positions be elected. It’s constitution was the first of its kind and even today is exceptional in the freedoms it protects. No other country has the same robustness in protections of freedom of expression or right to bear arms. Few other countries so thoroughly recognize the rights of those facing trial. America was the first country to organize its government as it did with a strong judicial branch, a bicameral legislature, and a strong but not monarchical executive; many countries have followed suit. The United States has the best justice systems of any highly populated country (maybe 19th most populous Germany is competitive in this regard). America was the first country to embrace capitalism and today remains among the most capitalist large countries (the UK, Netherlands, Taiwan, Canada, and Australia are competitive among populous countries, but the US is certainly first among countries with more than 100 million people).
American culture is very unique in its rebelliousness and individualism. Most other cultures highly emphasize the importance of contributing to some higher cause, but the USA is unique in its- not always explicit- egoism. Americans are much more expressive than other cultures. For better or worse, there just isn’t nearly as much flamboyance in Chongqing, Riyadh, Kinshasa, or Stockholm as there is in Los Angeles. In this vein, American entrepreneurial culture is unique. Though Shenzhen has tried to emulate silicon valley, it misses the cultural component that produces such great innovation like America does. This is certainly controversial, but it's my understanding that Americans are much less prejudiced than most other large countries’ citizens, and I think most foreigners would draw the same conclusion. Few other countries have small talk in the way Americans do. It's much less common to talk to strangers outside of the USA. In most countries, it's rare- and in many illegal- to speak out against powerful people or institutions, but in America it is common and encouraged, often it's more popular to oppose power than support it. American style and cuisine is not easily definable since it's so diverse. The United States also has very unique urban makeup, neither made of quaint dense streets like Europe nor heartless apartment blocks like China, but dominated by cars, symmetry, and single family homes. Few other countries do people so often customize the homes that they build or live in. No other place on earth has the skyscraper canyons of New York. America is essentially exceptionally enthusiastic, diverse, and individualistic culturally.