The US is not "behind the developed world", it's literally the developed world. The lightbulb. The airplane. The telephone. NASA. Space X. Tesla. And on and on...
When people talk about being behind or ahead the developed world, they are talking about the average person's availability of food, housing, internet, AC, transportation, healthcare, education, culture, day to day life, etc. Not century+ old tech or the handful of Billionaires' pet projects. Or, well, really, most of the time people just mean "The US is not like a subset of European (Likely Nordic) countries".
But that's besides the point, because I'm not the person making the argument. I was just pointing out that the comment was misread and misresponded to.
But that's besides the point, because I'm not the person making the argument. I was just pointing out that the comment was misread and misresponded to.