I'm concerned that comments like this are rising up in Hacker News lately. I'm not going to downvote it because it got me to write this post so has some intrinsic merit. But it strikes me as, to be blunt, unenlightened. Lots of facts but no deeper sentiment.

I would argue that the last sentence, the "may sound harsh" one, is most important - that as countries and populations reach certain levels of affluence and influence in the world, that it is very much their responsibility to be examples for others and provide a beacon towards what is still possible. The United States used to do this but I'm afraid we've turned inward due to seemingly prudent arguments that ignore the spiritual nature of our existence.