What made America great were the endowments bestowed on the populace by nature. Topsoil in many places 6 metres deep, water in abundance, trees forever and among the largest on the planets and then of course at the end of the 1800’s Pennsylvanian Oil.
I get a bit tired of hearing american authors (Stockman) posit that it is a smarts thing resisting on it’s own foundation. Try walking in any direction here in Australia and make carrots grow in our soils – they are mostly over half a billion years old. Debt has tied the hands behind the back but remove the shackles and there is hope with conditions like they have.