I wonder why you choose to compare your country to "one of those countries" when you clearly indicate you think they are not as good as yours?

You are like the coach of a sporting team pointing out all the teams that finished lower than yours on the ladder and saying "We did great compared to them. Good job. Keep it up."

Surely, if you were actually interested in improving your team, you would point out the teams that finished above you on the ladder and say "We can do better. Here's where to improve."

Somewhere along the line, America was so busy congratulating itself that it has forgotten it should be striving to do better.