BTW, people in this country are not necessarily better somehow, than people in other countries.
People in this country simply are not as used to having government restrict them as heavily as people in other countries do. And they are not as used to government saving them from the results of any laziness, inefficiency, lack of planning etc. they may have. So they are conditioned to be hardworking, responsible, and tough, more than people under the governments that other countries have.
Liberals have been trying to change this, and make people in this country as govt-dependent as people in other countries. If they ever succeed, then people’s performance in this country will be no better than those in other countries, and U.S. exceptionalism will be only a memory.