Living and traveling outside the US (Europe, Middle East, Asia) for ~15 years convinced me of the inherent superiority of the US (culturally, economically, etc.). Our government is broken, but generally the US lets problems get really inefficiently bad, then overcorrects, so I hope that will happen in the next 20 years.
The threats to the US are not other countries getting better than us, but the decline of the nation-state in general, or some global catastrophe which would harm everyone.
(There are plenty of specific areas where other countries are better than the US, but no single country which is enough better on enough things to be a serious competitor.)
I was much more down on the US before leaving the country. Independent of that, I would strongly suggest spending a few years living and working overseas, not just traveling for a few weeks as a tourist.
(The UK/Canada don't really count if you're from the US, either, IMO.)
The threats to the US are not other countries getting better than us, but the decline of the nation-state in general, or some global catastrophe which would harm everyone.
(There are plenty of specific areas where other countries are better than the US, but no single country which is enough better on enough things to be a serious competitor.)
I was much more down on the US before leaving the country. Independent of that, I would strongly suggest spending a few years living and working overseas, not just traveling for a few weeks as a tourist.
(The UK/Canada don't really count if you're from the US, either, IMO.)