Per capita income in 19th Century America are comparable to modern-day per capita income in India.
And actually, let me correct something you stated. We've never had "significant" growth; our growth has always been extremely slow, and the reason is because we have (in the modern era) always been at the technological and economic frontier of the world.
Lord knows Nigeria is growing faster than Europe. I still don't want to live in Nigeria.[/QUOTE ]
Proves that there's nothing spectacularly different about your historical experience. Ther is nothing 'efficient' or 'smooth' about your democracy either. And I can tell you that in the 18th/19th century the same comment made about Nigeria would be applicable to the US too- especially the south.