With all due respect Rob, I'd like to think we still have a tech edge. I received 4 patents in 2006 in nanotech manufacturing and devices, and I am selling these products to the far east. And, my company is just one of about 100 similar firms that I know of here in the USA. Don't write us off just yet 
American technology is terrific. But in the next decade, you'll have an entire generation of CHinese and Indian people turn 25, having grown up with the web and every advantage we have here.
Given their numbers, they will crush us on the macro level. It doesn't matter if 1 american is better than 1 indian, if they outnumber us 4 to 1.
Mfng is cheaper everywhere else now. Web makes most barriers to entry null and void. Tarriffs are gone, thanks dubya. It's going to be VERY bad in 20 years, when the CHILDREN of this foreign generation finish school. Hopefully we can make our dollars by then and retire.
Without US aggression for resources, we would be Russia in 10 years, without the vodka.