guyy

American schools can be bad, the health care system does indeed suck, but then again, nationalism and national identity have a negative component.
For example, anglophone Canada, for historical and geographical reasons, defines itself against America. Since the two countries -- or at least the anglophone parts of each -- share so much, the differences that are there tend to be played up. In Quebec it's not such an issue because they speak French -- and because they define themselves against anglophone Canadians & the French.

There are similar things going on between the UK and Ireland (and it's much nastier), NZ and Australia, every E. Asian nation and China, and in the Spanish speaking world.

The annoying thing about a lot of this is that it makes the political events into an issue of national identity. To go back to the Canadian example, Canadians don't have a good health care system because they are inherently wiser than Americans. They have one as the outcome of a political struggle which continues to this day. It's not too difficult imagining an America where FDR, Truman, or LBJ had pushed a national health scheme through, or a Canada where Tommy Douglas had lost.