For a start, Adam Smith was Scottish, not American. Next, while a lot of scientific discoveries might have been made in America, it has not been Americans who have been at the forefront. The list is too long and I will leave it up to others to compile a list. I am too lazy.

David

Americans are just Germans, Italians, Africans, Chinese etc etc who happen to speak English as is their technology !

A timely corrective, Howard. To which I would add, they are also a world powerhouse for publishing and for culture generally.

But don't tell us, tell Scott Morrison. Who prefers to genuflect to Olde England. Except when he's doing his sex-consent videos, which are American evangelical porn.

"And for that we're going to need the United States".

That line is the only one of any relevance to Australia. But, do we have the right to expect or ask for help, given our disgusting and embarrassing links to the Chinese Communist thugs.

I'm not sure if the US gets this but the use of archaic measurements means that others are forced to work harder. The infamous events of 911 were on 11/9/01 to use hierarchical dating. Antarctica is said to get to 2 below which if it means -2C is a mild night in Canberra but they mean -2F = -18.9C.

We talk of water supply in gigajoules they talk in acre feet. Fortunately the way they measure gas in millions of British Thermal units MMBTU is close to the international unit of gigajoules GJ. How many yards in a mile vs metres in a kilometre? One day the US will realise their quaint individuality is actually backwards.

First you tell me I'm wrong if I think the US chickens are coming home to roost.
And then you tell me that we need the US like it or not, because of 'ideas, concepts, theories, testing, technology, development. All the papers written by US-based scientists, all the fruitful collaborations, discussions, and consequent insights'.

What your saying is that my country is so hopeless we wouldn't be able to wipe our own backsides if it wasn't for America.

I take offense to that.

You started out by pointing out how irritating it is that Americans claim they are exceptional, but then all you did was irritate me more by telling me how exceptional they are.