Actually, my family lived in Germany for three years before moving to the US. The decision to move was mostly because of funding - my dad made a lot more money

Actually, my family lived in Germany for three years before moving to the US. The decision to move was mostly because of funding - my dad made a lot more money in the US, with more opportunities to advance, and more leeway in what he got to research than he did in Germany. This isn't to say that the US is the only place to do good research - there is tons of great work being done at top universities around the world. However, the US seems like the single country with the most research opportunities. In the end, I'd imagine it's about money - I don't have time to find specific figures, but I imagine in the US more money is spent on basic research than other countries.