That's a pretty amazing claim to make. The United States is not the only wealthy country in the world, and does not have the highest standard of living in the world. Western Europe is comparable. I would argue - for many reasons having to do with social solidarity and public goods - that it generally has a higher standard of living than the US. There are lots of other places scattered around the world, like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and don't forget Canada.
> China's wages don't remotely compare
Neither do prices in China. Moreover, as the difference between the US and China narrows, the attractiveness of the US over China as a place to live decreases, and the US will benefit less and less from brain drain out of China. Places like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen already have a GDP/capita of around $25k, and actually feel much more modern than American cities in many ways. I'm sure this dynamic is not unique to China.
The US had an incredibly good thing going for it - the ability to attract the best students and workers from around the world. People just take it for granted that the global tech industry is concentrated in Silicon Valley. Many people believe that if the US restricts immigration, all those tech jobs will remain in Silicon Valley and be redistributed among Americans. That might be the case for a short time, until companies adjust and move operations abroad, to where the labor force is.
Except there are no such places for the most part.
Europe's economy is stagnant and they are not paying competitively.
China's wages don't remotely compare, it only makes sense in the context of a National who might value their lives their due to family, history, nationality etc. etc..
Germany was rubble in 1945.
America still leads most industries.
There is an easier, less theoretical issue here, and that is the H1B program was a hustle. Infosys and a few others use it to 'inshore' IT talent and that's it. Not R&D by the way.
"It’s hard to see this as anything good for the world."
Actually it's crystal clear: those jobs stay in India where they pay local taxes where they are desperately needed and many more boats are lifted.