At the risk of starting a flame or political war here...

The ultimate success of the USA, IMHO comes straight from the Declaration of Independence --

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The key is Life, Liberty and the PURSUIT of hapiness. Nowhere do we guarantee happiness, but unfortunately our Congress and others try to legislate via Congress, the legislatures or the courts to move us incrementally toward socialism to try to guarantee that which can never be.

Additionally, our fundamental right to keep and acquire personal property is also paramount. Countries that are based on capitalistic principles fare much better than those based on communism or socialism. I believe we have a sufficient number of examples of this where I do not have to defend that statement -- collapse of USSR, fall of Berlin wall [re-uniting of Germany], Cuba vs places like Taiwan, USA, Japan [post-WWII] etc.

Oh how much better this country would be if we reverted to the more Libertarian principles and gravitate back to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness rights instead of our current trend toward higher taxation and socialism all via liberal incrementalism.

There is no better motivator than the fear of failure and the exhilaration of success through risk taking. This is my biggest problem with US tax code and other economic throttling regulations. We penalize success with higher marginal tax rates and reward failure and laziness and irresponsibility with corrupted welfare, social security and Federal health care systems. At least now our welfare system has been reformed as is functioning much better.