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Well, I could disagree with some of your initial premises (especially the imperialism one) but it's irrelevant. The US is neither an anachronism or ahead of the times, it simply is. Events are cyclical, and countries/people/everything evolves to whatever situation is best for that particular period. If the heavy tax burdens and foreign subsidising of universal health care become too much, other nations will abandon it. Or if public health becomes too low and other coutries start footing some of the bill, the US will try universal health care. And not all parts of the US have death penalty, only certain states do. And the only way of feasibly lowering the gap between rich and poor would be to outlaw rich people. This isn't healthy, and Europe is feeling the pinch because of their lesser wealth imbalance. I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Europe is unable to attract the well-educated and skilled foreigners required to keep up to date with their sagging birth rates because those foreigners choose either to go to the US (where there is a greater chance of increasing their wealth) or stay in their home countries. It seems Europe is only able to attract low-skill workers, and France is only the first to see what that eventually leads to.
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