...in the international phone system. 1 is the country code for the US!
No it's not. You can also reach people in Canada by using 1 as the country code.
This #1 attitude you yanks have won't do you very well when China surpasses you as the #1 economy in the next couple years.
You can reach a lot of countries with the 1 country code, courtesy of the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan
Also, it would only be fair for China to surpass us since they have 4x the people.