If that was the explanation, then we would say that America is behind the rest of the world on weights and measures because America invented engineering.
And we would say that America is behind the rest of the world on Health Care because America invented hospitals.
And we would say that America is behind the rest of the world on justice and incarceration because America invented prisons.
A much simpler explanation is that all these things share the same social and political forces, and America is different from the rest of these world on all these things for similar reasons, and those reasons--whatever we may think they are--are not related to whether America "invented tech" or not.
America does have a rather extreme case of “not invented here” syndrome; we rarely consider best practices in other countries as worthy, especially if that other country is not an Anglosphere one.
In fact, that “America invented tech” comment is a perfect example of that.
