The US barely squeaks into the top 10 richest countries (GDP per capita), and even during the worst days of post-Communist chaos I doubt there was ever a case of a camera crew getting robbed at gunpoint in Prague.
This simply isn't true. Looking at the IMF numbers in 2023, the US is number 7. Every country ahead of the US has something that is massively distorting their GDP per capita. Tax havens, nationalized oil, etc.