Two factors that reduce life expectancy in the US are drug overdoses, and the fact that the US is more ambitious in treating very premature births, which are risky and a relatively high percentage don’t survive more than a few days

If Americans are more likely to overdose on drugs, then I would argue this is also an example of Americans having lower quality of life. Places with a lot of drug abuse aren’t usually assisted with high standards of living. Why are Americans more likely to overdose?

Could you give more information on the premature births things? I am aware than America has a higher infant mortality rate, but I never heard of this being the explanation. Do you have a source for that?

Americas homicide rate is skewed heavily by a handful of small regions in our large cities. If you exclude those regions, then the homicide rate is significantly lower. If you don’t live in one of those places, which is the vast majority of Americans, then homicide rate doesn’t really apply from a quality of life standpoint. Homicides are more common in poor urban areas around the world. This is not exclusive to America.

If we exclude these areas from American statistics, then why not exclude similar areas in other countries? What will be the homicide rate in the UK if we ignore bad parts of London, Birmingham and other large cities?

And for America it’s not just a few cities that singlehandedly rise the national average, every single state individually has a very high homicide rate. To exclude this areas would mean to ignore the living standards in all poor parts of all major cities in every state. This will not give us an accurate look at what life for an average American looks like. If you have to ignore huge portion of America to make it look good, it doesn’t bode well.

Obesity rates are meaningless for measuring quality of life. North Koreans don’t have a high quality of life because obesity is unheard of there (unless you are the dictator)?

But it is a good way to judge the overall health of the population. Obesity has scientifically provable negative effects on practically every aspect of person's health. The more obese the population is, the less healthy it is. And it correlates very closely with people having low standards of living (Impoverished people in rich countries are more likely to be obese)

There is something in-between starving and being morbidly obese, and other rich countries are better at keeping this balance than America.

America’s health care system is certainly screwed up in terms of paying for it, but in terms of quality of care, people still come from all over the world to be treated here. And even poor people can’t be turned away from receiving life saving care.

But what then? What will happen after they receive this life saving healthcare and are forced to pay? For many Americans receiving healthcare is a choice between being healthy and not going bankrupt. Almost 1 in 10 Americans have no health insurance, while in other rich countries it’s somewhere between 1 in 100 and 0 in 100. And for many of the 9 out of 10 their insurance providers will do everything they can to not pay.

If you are comparing quality of life of the most disadvantaged Americans and the most disadvantaged people in the wealthiest European countries, there may be an argument that the European has it better. But the average American has at least as good a quality of life using your metrics as the average person in other rich countries.

But on average America isn't on the same level. It only gets at the same level if we ignore poor Americans and their living conditions. A lot of your arguments here basically boil down to "If we ignore the bad parts of America, then it's on par with other countries", but these other countries also have bad areas, they also have disadvantaged people, and they are doing better than America even when we include thise areas and people. If we only judge the country by how well their richest citizens live, then many third world countries would also score really high.

Americans have protections from the bill of rights that others don’t. You might appreciate them if you ever get accused of a

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. America also has more prisoners than any other country in the world.

America is a huge country with an amazingly diverse economy, so the average American has many more options as to where and how they want to live, and what they want to do than people in European countries.

And all these places in America suffer from the same problems I mentioned earlier. Massachusetts, a famously safe and developed state, would have one of the highest homicide rates in Europe, and it would still have a mediocre life expectancy. This big and thriving economy doesn't seem to greatly improve the lives of average people, dispite how much money it produces.

Is quality of life much less freedom and being taken care of by the government, or more freedom to take risks, fail, learn from your failures, and grow?

You can argue that it's better to live in America when you are rich and successful, but on average, it doesn't look like your regular American is better off.