[Berniek]

Perhaps its because of the history and culture of self determination. Dog eat dog if you prefer. No one else was going to help you, you need to help yourself. Individuals must have a job or earn money. sink or swim. Hard lessons embedded in the culture.

Individuals (generally) don't have a safety net like most European countries.

Individual health care is only for the successful (rich). This breeds a culture of perseverance, if you like it weeds out the weak & lazy. They can't survive in this sort of cultural environment, so they are able to be exploited with low wages and conditions, which in turn allows businesses to thrive.

Add to this a critical mass of people (350 million?) and you have lots of consumers with lots of money to invest/spend. Initially fortunes were made and the country grew economically on super low wages (slavery). You now have lots of "canon fodder", workers who will do what they are told and must accept wages at any level because they must to survive. Individuals must provide for their old age, no one else will. If you can't then you just keep working. The individual drive to succeed is very strong in this environment, chances must be taken, failure is not an option. The only way to pull them selves out of this situation is by innovating and entrepreneurship.