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"In almost any meaningful index of quality of life, we lag far behind other Western democracies."

Our healthcare ranks 19th among Western nations and our literacy rate is not as high as some other nations, but we still have one of the highest standards of living. More importantly, this is the country where people are told they can be anything they want to be when they grow up, which is not found anywhere else on earth.

"...we lag far behind other Western democracies."

Memo to dildo: the US is not a democracy.

Apparently, this 'teacher' never bothered to read the Constitution he so disdains. Try Article IV, Section 4, chump. And go suck on your hyphen while you're looking it up.

Our healthcare ranks 19th among Western nations

Poppycock. Every sick person in the world desperately dreams of getting an American doctor. Whatever source you got this "statistic" from must use some truly creative criteria for "quality healthcare". My guess would be that expense and availability would rank very high on their criteria list, and if so, it is designed specifically to favor socialist systems over free-enterprise. In other words, Leftist garbage nonsense.

and our literacy rate is not as high as some other nations

As a teacher, I can tell you that in most cases, those who can't read simply don't care about learning to read. If you want this to change, you either have to change the cultural background of those who aren't interested in learning, or force them to learn against their will. Neither is a freedom-based solution.

I'll leave you with this analogy: Since the fascist dictators of WWII were famous for having the trains running on time, would you advocate chaning our system to mirror theirs so that we can compete?

We don't have to be #1 in government-subsidized healthcare, and should not want to be. (However, I'd bet my home that the US is #1, by a wiiiiide margin, in providing healthcare to the world's poor.)