I'm in the EU myself, and while I do believe we (and China) have similar levels of taltent, there are two reasons why it seems to me like the US can extract more from them: 1. In the EU people aren't pushed to perform to the maximum and 2. In China they aren't rewarded for it. The US is pretty much the only place in the world where an IC researcher at a major lab can become a millionaire.

Everywhere else you have to become a founder or manager, and that's not a good path for many talented people.

The writing is on the wall in the United States. The lack of real infrastructure usable by as many people possible currently being built is sorely lacking in comparison to China or Japan or Korea. Within the American borders, there used to be more of a can do attitude that does not exist at the same level as in the past, the attitude today is more in keeping with US steel, IBM, or Xerox…