These are all excellent points. Having lived for long periods outside the US, I can vouch for them. Taking the other side of the question, two areas where the US tends to be better than many countries are: much less tolerance for bureaucracy and a greater individual sense of the need to improve/change oneself.

I think these are great insights, especially about comfort not equalling happiness.

I think a major factor behind it is that the US has no historical culture, just a popular culture. I think American's don't realize it at all unless they spend time outside the US to see how the important the historical context is. There was no USA 200 years ago, while many countries have thousand year old cultures.

Perhaps the author confuses what our media says we're interested in, vs what Americans are actually interested in. Most of us are interested in a job, getting to work, finding a spouse, paying our mortgage. Just like everybody else.