I respect your right to an opinion, but you lost me at "No, and I have no desire to." Your statement is a typical American one. The west is the best, everything I need is in America. America is the best, anything not western is worse.

I still have faith in America, but without the contrast of living in other countries, I would never have seen its shortcomings as clearly as I do now.

As someone who has lived in and visited multiple countries. I can tell you experience does make a difference. Respectfully, it's a bit like reading reading a book about sex and thinking you know what it is. You can borrow the experience of the author, but if you've never had the experience for yourself, you really don't know it. :)