I don’t see how having the reserve currency has logically contributed to innovation actually. It would make way more sense that the foundation of culture, independence, and entrepreneurship that were established during America’s rise simply haven’t been fully rotted away by the fiat system. By being partially intact as technological progress continues to compound, and while we are able to import skilled workers, we still achieve enormous amounts of innovation and progress.

I guess in listing it out we can say that it may have contributed to our ability to import talent, but this was also a massive element for much of this country’s history, freedom has always been highly desirable. I doubt that net different with the reserve currency is on the direction of more talent either. To the contrary, fiat has allowed the establishment of the welfare and any state, which may very well mean the quality and ratio of imported talent has decreased broadly. The saving grace may simply be that with technological progress and a more connected economy, fewer great minds and innovations can still have a much larger and quicker impact on the entire ecosystem.

There are lots of opposing forces at play, but I can’t find a strong reason to attribute much of anything positive to the fiat system.