America becoming the biggest power on earth had more to do with WW2 smashing the other powers flat and leaving America relatively unscathed.

America losing its edge now has a lot to do with China and India having several decades of relative peace and a population that massively outstrips America.

And America did seem to work surprisingly well 80 years ago.. Of course, that's 1925, 5 years later it was a complete mess that lasted for a decade.

In other words, America's overall tax-rate actually has very little to do with its overall performance.

I posted on this very same matter back in November, though with an eye more towards sorting out such taxonomical discrepancies with code. I guess I should have hacked something up then. Still, nice to see folks thinking about the same issues.