Mind Bogglingly Stupid

As mentioned by Anne in another thread, I had a recent trip to Portugal. I traveled for 13 days on mainland and Madeira. I've traveled in Europe many times and, though sometimes it seems people drive too fast for some narrow roads/streets they all seem accustomed to the conditions and are driving what appears safe for their abilities. I see plenty of big rigs, though they are different than here. Overall, it seems that there are better drivers as a whole there and I wonder if it's just a failure of our education system or culture. Within a week of being back I've seen several unsafe drivers. Passing through turn lanes, passing with oncoming traffic, following too close, etc. The difference is pretty alarming. I drove to meet Michael at his local yard the other night and there was an intersection at a T ahead of us (dead end ahead of us past the intersection. The light was red and I was puzzled what the car ahead of me was doing. It drove right past the line marking where to stop and right up to the red light which was on the other side of the crossing street before he realized he had screwed up. Yesterday two big rigs (one bobtailing) had pulled off the shoulder of a busy highway near our place and were stuck in the mud. They had gone beyond the paved area of the shoulder and gone right into the mud. I don't know if the bobtailer thought he was going to help pull the other guy out or what but they were both screwed. There was a guy in a pickup pulled onto the paved shoulder and had a chain hooked from his pickup to the bobtail truck. It seemed obvious they needed a tow truck but they were intent on showing off their stupidity. I'm just wondering what the root cause of all of this stupidity might be. Gene pool? Education? Society not holding people accountable? I love the U.S. but stuff like this makes me think about leaving sometimes.