What was it that caused/allowed the United States to become the economic superpower of the world?

Answer 1

There are many reasons why the US is a successful nation. With that said, I think the reason the US is a superpower economically is because of slavery (here me out!)
1. Since slaves were property that did not need to be paid labor, the relatively small overhead for owing slaves was worth the marginal profit their labor produced. The profits attained from free slave labor working abundant natural resources was massive. And since the US allowed slavery to occur for so long, the accumulation of wealth was immense.
2. In addition, the abundant slave labor freed lower class whites from doing the menial and manual labor jobs they did before slavery existed to pursue other interests. This, in my opinion, was the launch pad for the innovative culture that still exists today. As innovations in agriculture and manufacturing developed, the profits soared and the amount of wealthy people in the US increased (investments, trading, entrepreneurship, blah, blah, blah). Then the middle class came to being as the average level of wealth steadily climbed.
Then WWII set the stage for the US to become the only super-power.
This is just a broad overview

Answer 2

Well their are many factors which make america the economic superpower.....
like..they have a careful p-lanning..
lets start fom beginning,...they set the time line in such a way that they were the last ones...all countries do their work and sleep then u.s.a does their work.....
In 2004, Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation, the world's leading foundation for entrepreneurship, published a groundbreaking essay with a radical premise: that Americans literally have no conception of the secret that truly underlies our economic success, and that for the United States to survive and continue to lead the world's economy, it is imperative we learn to understand and employ that secret. The secret that has led the American economy to become the world's strongest? Our unparalleled skill as entrepreneurs. As Schramm argues, entrepreneurship alone – not anything else – can give America the necessary leverage to remain an economic superpower. Not technology, since everyone now has the same technology, or access to it. Not education – we are years behind other nations in this area. Not basic manufacturing, long since moved overseas from the United States. And not capital markets, now truly global entities.

Drawing on detailed research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation and on his decades of experience as an entrepreneur himself and as a leader and mentor to other entrepreneurs, Schramm persuasively demonstrates in detail what this entrepreneurial imperative means for the way we run universities and foundations, lead companies, make personal job decisions, and even conduct our foreign affairs. The Entrepreneurial Imperative can change not only the way our government, corporations, and nonprofits operate, but also our day-to-day lives as working Americans.

Answer 3

As I said in answering another question, the US combines a large population (third largest after China and India) and a per capita income of about $45,000 that is higher than all but a few countries. The end result is that the overall size of the US economy is 2.5 times bigger than Japan which is in second place.

The Soviet Union was once a rival to the US. It combined an even larger total population with a lower but still substantial per capita income. Now that it has broken up into various pieces, the largest part, Russia, can no longer challenge the US.

The size of the total economy of the European Union probably exceeds that of the US. It has a larger population and a per capita income that is not far behind the US. However, until it can act with a single voice in foreign affairs and has a joint military capability that rivals the US, it is still a second rate power.

China with its huge population could someday challenge the US after its per capita income grows substantially which is currently only about $2,300 per year. It is growing rapidly and this may not be very far off.

India could also challenge the US with a population that will soon be even larger than China. However, it stall lags behind China in per capita income.

Answer 4

The most important thing that has allowed the US to become the greatest super power on earth is capitalism. The freedom to practice capitalism has been the single most important factor in the success of this nation.
While it may be true that Americans have been behind thousands of innovations that have made life better for mankind, without the prospect of personal benefit, little or no innovation would ever take place.
Our founding fathers knew this. Capitalism has been vilified by leftists in this country and abroad, but without it, we might not be communicating via the Internet today.
Good question.

Answer 5

The U.S. GDP per capita is not exceptionally high by the standards of developed world; it is, therefore, the sheer population factor that makes the U.S. economy so large compared to the rest of the world.

Before World War I, the U.S. popupation was about 50% greater than Germany's; now, it is 250% greater. The U.S. population simply grew much faster than German population. So the answer to your question is rather obvious: immigration and relatively high family fertility...

Answer 6

Nuclear Bomb,

Face it, without it the US foreign policy would have gotten them "liberated" long ago...