How and when America becomes richer than other countries?

Question

As far as I know, if American economy sneezes, the whole world shakes up. Americans apparently drive world;s economy. What makes people migrate from other countries to US? Only serious answers please.

Answer 1

Higher standard of living and more money.

U.S per capita: $44,000

Answer 2

United States is the largest economy in the world (meaning the sum of all output is the greatest), but by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita income it's not the richest (meaning when divided among population and taking our price level into consideration, we're not the most well-off).

How and when? That's the million dollar question because everyone else would have followed if we knew the answer. But generally speaking, how it came to be is a mixture of relatively superior political system (democracy and freedom of this and that led to economic efficiency), aggressive foreign policy (the "darker side" such as colonialism, imperialism, territorial expansion, etc), and some spectacular stroke of luck (US just happened to be a extremely natural resource rich country and was in the right place at the right time during several historical events) . Even though America grew to be a world power after the Civil War, the Great Depression pretty much set it back to zero, but some important capital US acquired before the Great Depression proved vital, including the construction of transportation infrastructure and some very important technological innovations. After the Great Depression, the war profiteering of American businesses during World War II is seldom spoken of, but coupled with some the most impressive macroeconomic policies, it was extremely important to the recovery of American economy. After the US-led Allies won the war, US was able to establish a very heavy political presence throughout the world and it wasn't shy to use such influence to its economic favor. That was about the time when US became a superpower, and afterwards money and power pretty much was just stacking on each other.

The reason that people migrate to the United States is not all currency motivated; the tide of immigration began long before America was either rich or powerful. Sure, economic well-being is one of the driving factors, but United States is also an ideal place for immigration because of its freedom and inclusiveness. If money was the only motive, people could move to Japan or western Europe where people are equally rich, but those places are ethnically and culturally homogenous and any outsider would have a hard time fitting in. Of course prejudice, xenophobia, or down right racism and persecution exists everywhere, including the United States, as history has clearly demonstrated, but the United States today is still by far the most inclusive both by its immigration policy and by its demographics, as this is a country founded by immigrants and has accepted people of all origins throughout history. Its economic and political standing is perhaps the most important motivation for immigrants but its diversity distinguishes United States from other potential countries of destination.