Make no mistake, I understand your point, that America is more dynamic and all that, but as it is, they have set things up almost perfectly to destroy themselves (financially), and the entire world if they get away with it. Perhaps if America had adopted a little more of the "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" philosophy, we wouldn't be in this predicament.

Iceland. Home of conformity and Tall Poppy Syndrome. Their entire country is in massive debt.

Maybe making poor economic decisions has nothing to do with ideology or cultural assumptions...