The US is <50 years from it's last large default (moving off the Gold standard). This is more than most European nations. And for nonpayment risk you obviously

The US is <50 years from it's last large default (moving off the Gold standard). This is more than most European nations. And for nonpayment risk you obviously count the time between large defaults. Whether the person/company/country/empire/dynasty/... "dies" or not is irrelevant. Private companies, mostly because they have no such choice, actually do better than states.