Originally Posted by
fosters
I think the reason the US economy has traditionally outperformed other countries is because of our willingness to take on large amounts of debt to expand.
A good point, but not universally true. In the late 1990's, the US economy experienced some of the largest growth in history. The US Government was operating at a surplus, a policy that may have enabled the economy to "bounce back" from the dot-com bubble with such resilience.
Of course, those days are over. With the deficit and public debt at their current levels, I fear some very difficult times ahead.