The decline of the US vis a vis India and China has been a bit exaggerated.The United States still has a lot to offer the world. It can apply its relatively limited labor supply to best advantage by concentrating on high-value products that depend on what this country has in abundance, a high level of training and lots of physical capital as well as technology.

It is popular these days to highlight American inadequacies compared to developing economies. Those who do this point out, for instance, the number of engineers China educates each year or the impressive computer talent in India. However the statistics nonetheless still heavily favor the United States as the venue for high-value production, with China or India or other emerging economies better suited to concentrates on simpler, labor-intensive output. The average Chinese worker, for instance, has only one-twentieth the equipment and technology at his or her disposal that American workers have.

In pure volume terms China produces about as much as the United States, but only half as much when it comes to value added.

Research and development spending in the United States, relative to GDP, exceeds that of China by a factor greater than two.