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I'm British (Scouse, we're just different) by birth.
When I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 23, in Finland, existing in an ex-pat bubble surrounded by other Euros, Canadians, Australians, etc + US-ians, one of my American friends, a managerial accountant who had been living abroad for several years, said to me when I told lots of others in the bar at the same time:
"Man, I'm so sorry. I'm sure everything will be fine with your health" - (everyone always says that) - "but you'll never, ever get decent health insurance again"
Cue lots of people look at him puzzled.
He simply didn't understand that, as an EU citizen, no matter where I am within the EU I can be treated free of charge, no matter what the real cost is.
He was schooled a little, but didn't 'get it' for a week or so. The freedom that universal healthcare brings together with joining the club of other nations that have it. (they tend to extend the same benefits in mutual relations to other nations with universal healthcare)
I've always been fascinated and horrified by the US. Such a culture of extremes. Most of my 'heroes' are US-ians, but also an inordinate number of 'anti-heroes'.
I feel that the US system has to fail and be rebuilt, because it is, genuinely, a-historic.
The reason it is a-historic was to save Us (the rest of the world) from Leninism (particularly Stalinism) and the US from it's depression - which was never really conquered. The whole of their culture from the 40/50's onwards seems to have been utterly, insanely, narrowly skewed ever rightwards. Even to the point of changing the pledge of allegiance, debasing their economy, embracing Strausian (Good Guy! Bad Guy!) thought and consciously mortgaging their future in an attempt to keep up the fight.
The skewing of their spectacular society led them toward the outlasting-the-other victory over Stalinism circa '90, but at the cost of historicity. In any system where access to information is free(ish), a-historicity(?) will tend toward the failure of that incarnation of the state.
At the moment, in my opinion, we're witnessing the structural death of the winners of the cold war. Just as, post WW2, the world witnessed the death of the British Empire.
I could be wrong, but hey, i have an a-hole and an opinion.
Oh, and on the topic of education; graduates and pieces of paper mean little towards 'education'... that's a whole other topic though.
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"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--
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