I also don't want to compare nations here, and you are certainly right about the US standards in pop culture. I just wanted to point out that US privileges are very disputeable. Most people who lived in both places - US and Europe - feel that democracy, civil rights, or freedom of press in the US today are less developed than in other western nations.

The argument that natural disasters strike mostly heathen countries sounds as a sort of blasphemy. Its also wrong. The US have far more natural disasters than Europe.