You are on the right path and am going to expand the highway.
Using the sports analogy for now. Not like double tennis or any sports with just a paired team, but look at the US like hockey, basketball, or soccer, for example, where the geography is large which requires multi-positions players, and they all must interact (teamwork) to win. If we take any individual player, even superstars like O'Neal or Ronaldo or Gretzky, we will find that he excels at some tasks/skills, mediocre at some, or even poor at some. This is where the coach and manager comes in. In a team, players complement and supplement each other. In the NBA, many superstars paid their respects to the passers, who are generally lesser known than the superstars, but without these individuals, there would be no superstars. It the job of the coaches and managers to figure out the best combinations and let the team go.
A country is very similar. Economics is one player/position. Education is another. Bureaucracy, Infrastructure, Law, Geography, Institutions, People, Culture, Entertainment, and the list is long.
If you want to learn how to sail, you do not go to landlocked Mongolia.
If you want to learn how to sail in open water, you do not go to a country where there are only rivers.
If you want a career in minerals, such as mining, you do not go to the Principality of Monaco.
You get the idea...
If you (not
YOU personally) are openly gay and you want to start a business specializing in gay oriented products and services, that limit you to all First tier countries, which the US is a member, Second tier like the EU, maybe some in Eastern Europe, and definitely not the Middle East.
A country may be high in natural resources but also high in Bureaucracy. Or high in Finance but low trust, re: Corruption.
If you take any individual player from the US, you will find some other countries whose players in the same positions are better. But the point is that somehow the players in the US team managed to work together best. If you want finance, go to New York. Mines? Nevada. Ranch/Farming? Texas. Technology? California. Of course, for each field/specialty, there are more than just one state whose environment are favorable to that field/specialty. Am just simplifying for the sake of visualization.
Then there is arable land. The US and India are nearly identical in arable land and agricultural products/exports. Both countries are at the top.
Emigration is %99 a one-time deal, meaning you uproot yourself, and maybe your family, just once. So you better pick your destination carefully. Somehow, the US is most favored. The US do not need to attract the brightest, only the most willing to work hard and our political/social environment let you enjoy the fruits of your labor. You make Widget A, and someone in China make Widget B that is better than yours. But you get to make more money in shorter time because there is less bureaucracy and corruption, and better IP protection, so where are you going to be? You go to any First tier country and you will find someone made something better than the US version, but somehow the creator do not benefit from his ideas as much if he is in the US. And because you get your version out faster, others can build upon it, and pay your royalties, your Widget got improved and more famous, and it builds on from there.
The US do not have to excel individually in order to beat everyone else as a team.
