The US is a big place. Most of our public schools are rather poor in all the metrics that matter. It's a patchwork of infrastructure that prioritizes wealth. Most of the US's systems, for low-income individuals, undermines success and embroil them in debt and incarceration, systems that empower the wealthy.

Look at cancer alley. Look at Flint Michigan. Look at overpolicing in communities of color by white officers. Look at the crumbling rail systems that keep getting sidelined in favor of car infrastructure despite the objective efficiencies in a rail economy.

For some it really is comparable to a third world country. That's not to say we are or aren't, because again the place is huge.