Well Europe isnt a country. Its a continent. So sure you can find absolute poor countries to compare to and youll come out on top.
But given how America is one of the richest countries in the world, how do America compare to some of the more renowned countries or even regions like say Scandinavia ?
America have
Guns
Apart from that , America have been going down on a technical decline for the past 20 odd years.
It wasn't so obvious but after the 2008 Financial Crisis , Citizens United versus FEC, Occupy Wall Street etc etc
You can see the decline.
Obviously it didn't just started 20 years or so back.. Policies being made during the Reagan years (some of it I believe).
During Clinton's administration NAFTA, have created grievance from the working class and move away a lot of jobs. (Let's not even touch on China taking away jobs.
The reason why they are the " whipping boys " now is due to Geo / Domestic politics and tense economical and security competition ).