Originally Posted by alansmithee

I would wager that many of the things that the above article points out as lacking in America (at least dealing with education and science) were never things that America was top, or near the top in. Remember, there was a large period of time where approximately 15% of the national population was barred from decent schooling. Even as time progressed education was not shown to be a priority for minorities. And on top of that, currently we have a large, mainly uneducated immigrant population. Much of the EU has very strict immigration policies, and don't deal with the same problems as the US.

America's "greatness" has never come from it's masses. America has been, and continues to be, great because it excels in most (if not all) areas. Even though the average American might have less scientific knowledge than the average European, America still leads in scientific development. Even if the average state of health is lower, America still has the best medical facilities. And America's GDP is still tops in the world.

I think it comes down to what metric you want to use to measure greatness. If you think greatness is measured by the state that the majority of the population is in, then America will lag behind the EU. But if you think that greatness is measured by having access to the best the world has to offer, then the EU would be behind. It's all a matter of what you define as great.