"One of those" saved time over naming off each country, considering everyone knows which countries I'm referring to. And is my country better? Um... Yeah. By orders of magnitudes it's better.
You missed the point. Everyone knows the sports team that constantly finishes in the middle of field is better than those below. OK, we get it.
Why are you so concerned with comparing America to the countries that everyone knows are "lower" than America?
If you actually had any interest in improving, you'd be looking at those countries higher than America, and you'd notice the gap between America and the top of the ladder is growing very, very quickly.