Y'know, if America were the only example of a nation reaching and maintaining first-world status, you might have a point...but it's not, and you don't.
Look at how utterly devastated Germany and Japan were. From the very beginning of their rebuilding (Japan and West Germany, that is), universal health care and inexpensive higher education were built into their systems. From almost the very beginning they had high taxes and strong regulation. From almost the very beginning from their recovery from the destruction and ruin, as soon as the occupation by Allied forces ended, they had the very same systems that they have today...the same systems of big government, high effective taxes, and strong regulation that conservative dogma demands is a sure path to economic ruin.
The examples of Japan and Germany, of every first-world democracy on the planet, show that big government, high effective taxes, and strong regulation DO seem to be necessary in order to have a first-world democracy...and the examples of almost every third-world democracy on the planet DO seem to show that small or weak government, low effective taxes, and weak regulation are not conducive to national prosperity.
And FYI, we became a superpower at the end of WWI - because France and England had mortgaged to us so much of their economies in order to pay for their own war effort. Not only that, but at that time we already had "big government", and the government then was in some ways more intrusive than it is today. We did not yet have high taxation - but that came later in order to pay for WWII, and along with it came the strong regulation necessary to increase technological and infrastructure development across the nation. One great example is our interstate system - just imagine how that would have wound up if there hadn't been strict regulation of how those interstate freeways were to be built and maintained!
