Actually, I stand behind American programmers as the most capable and
proficient in the world.  It's not a racist thing, or isolationist, just a
well formed personal opinion based on a lot of years of experience in the
business.  Part of the reason, I believe, is that America has enjoyed the
best compensation rates in the world for software developers.  In 3rd world
countries, these positions don't pay much different than any other business
or industry, so it's just another career.  There's not the financial
enticement that there is in America.  That's one of the reasons the
offshoring of software development to India is so controversial.  Indians
are wonderful and hard working people, but experience shows that the product
of outsourcing development to India is not cost or time efficient, due to
cultural and geographic issues.  Bottom line is that you don't get the level
of quality that is produced here.  Your example of Microsoft software is
kind of a flame, as Windows operating systems are horribly complicated
beasts.  Have you ever sat down to write a graphical operating sytem that
was all things to everyone, and then expect it to work perfectly in all
situations with all software?  Doubt it.  I'm a Microsoft critic too, but
your example was pretty lame.