not really—the us doesn’t outcompete everywhere in every category. for health, the us spends the most per capita yet lags peers on life expectancy and outcomes, and on pisa, the us sits in the high 20s for math with mixed results in reading and science.

sources:

commonwealth fund

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2022

oecd health statistics

https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2022/09/understanding-differences-in-health-expenditure-between-the-united-states-and-oecd-countries_cafc404c/6f24c128-en.pdf

nytimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/us/math-scores-pandemic-pisa.html

chalkbeat

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/12/05/math-scores-fall-but-united-states-rises-in-rankings-on-pisa-test

ncè pisa 2022

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2022/