@TooCool:
There's a lot of people in places around the world that would love the luxury of American poverty. The healthcare thing is tit for tat in many ways. I'm from Canada and now live in Japan. Two vastly different systems. I had never paid at hospital for anything as it was all covered by taxes. But here in Japan there are private clinics and hospitals all over the place. If I can't get service at one or can't get surgery at one, I can get it fixed at another place. It is regulated so the government pays 70% and the end user pays 30%, and then you're taxed on top of that for the privilege, but it works, is fast, reliable, and basically foolproof. Canadian system is really down to where you live. Among about 100 friends, many of whom haven't had to use hospital, 4 have had problems getting surgery or treatment because their province doesn't cover it.
The Swedish system was a bit more reliable, but still you have problems. I think that healthcare systemisation is ongoing. We may never get it right, but the idea that blanket coverage is always best is off.
Education system: yeah, it sucks. It's not good in Canada either, and here in Asia, most people speak only one language. But they're good at maths and science, which are the only ones that really matter.
Dangerous: that's a cultural problem endemic to those cities, not to the USA as a whole. There are no good fixes for them, either.
Prison: agreed with Octavious: prison or death. Or, a voluntarily law abiding society, or a culturally patrolled society. USA is so diverse that you're going to have problems trying to shoehorn or even compare it with other countries. It's a cultural problem that affects certain minorities more than others, and appears to largely be the fault of upbringing and family problems that aren't endemic to the group when isolated in other countries. Fix that shit and you fix the prison problem.
The hidden hand of the market corrects, but when you've hobbled the hand by rules that tie the market into government or other unnatural unions you have problems. If citizens in the USA were able to choose their healthcare insurance willy nilly and could choose from bargain barrel or high-end stuff without having to go through employers, and could buy out of state coverage, there MIGHT be a different discussion.
Here in Japan, we have a problem with single parent households, too, as it relates to badassery and law breaking. Parents together in general just works.