Why Only Americans Are Interested in the Hunt for Alien Life

They don't even answer the question. I guess he suggests that Americans are still explorers and other countries aren't. That's hardly an explanation.

Given the U.S. propensity for religiousity, perhaps another effort is searching the universe for God?

Maybe the rest of the world realizes it would go something like this,

"OK found them!"

"Awesome! Yay! Hurray!"

celebration for weeks, maybe months, hysterical articles, news headlines, further research initiatives, etc

Decades later, still have hunger, famine, rising global temperatures, scarce resources, disease, cancer, wars mongering superpowers, and corporate greed, etc

America hasn't exactly helped Europe out by displacing millions of refugees and creating a humanitarian crisis on their door step. Not to mention doing practically nothing to tackle climate change for the last 30 years.

Sure Europe is in a difficult place right now, but who knows, they might emerge beter off and more ready for space exploration down the track?

From the article:

  So I've resorted to amateur sociology to provide 
  justification. Unlike the countries of Europe, 
  America still resonates to its pioneering heritage, 
  and that heritage is stunningly recent.