I agree with you in every paragraph but the last and maybe even then. While the economy is obviously different than it was 70 years ago, what made the US so dominant in WWII was our ability to design and build things. In four years, we built something like 300,000 airplanes, 10,000 ships, an atomic bomb, etc.

I'm reading A World at Arms (https://www.amazon.com/World-Arms-Global-History-War/dp/0521...) at the moment, and what has struck me most so far is what a mistake the Axis made underestimating American manufacturing mobilization.

Today, I'm not sure if we could ramp up actual production as quickly.