Western Europe and New Zealand are great places to live (east Asia is too big - I had to qualify Europe as well for similar reasons). However the US is also a great place to live. You cannot many any universal statement that one is better than another. There are pros and cons, but for the most part things are similar, and the difference is only slightly different sets of trade offs. In the US you will probably make more income which can lead to better quality of life in the form of things you can buy - but things you can buy isn't everything (and there are people who would make less in the US)

The expression "parts of" means "not all of". I didn't want to type out every neighborhood in Japan, Korea, China, etc.