> Considering that the US universities consistently rank among the top and they do produce the significant portion of the groundbreaking innovation and technolo

> Considering that the US universities consistently rank among the top and they do produce the significant portion of the groundbreaking innovation and technology, maybe the American model has a merit? Britain had quite a lot of innovation during the 1800s when it coïncidentally also had one of the larger/est economies. As the economy of the US got larger and larger in the late-1800s / early-1900s all of a sudden it also coïncidentally started inventing a whole bunch more things. How much of the innovation and technology from having the largest economy in the world and the most money/capital to throw around? Certainly there needs to be a certain culture present, especially individualism and capitalism, but how much is 'brute size' a part of the equation?