Posting to follow. Although everyone here has an interest in shooting holes in the logic you threw out, America is now the Japan of yesteryear (and Europe before that all the way back to Rome, etc.). This small, young nation has been at the top for a while, and although I saw some pretty graphs and charts, I am interested to do a deep disinterested dive into why others believe that this nation is different (although other countries like India and China have more manpower and incentive). Meanwhile here, the Fed has continued to manipulate growth more than I personally think was necessary (to firm up the shaky foundation that Investment Banks built). In the whole scheme of things, immigration is slowing and our population is ageing (undermining important social programs), so I also am interested in why more people aren't worried about the parallels with late 1980's Japan (which was before my time, but I know they were incredibly domestically rich and started buying up lots of valuable U.S. real estate in NYC and Hawaii).
And I wouldn't be depressed at all if we were Japan for the next 20+ years. They have a good standard of living, focus on savings, respect their elders... Just because their domestic stock market has not kept up with others doesn't mean that every national is 'depressed'.