Quote Originally Posted by Breukelen advocaat
What other country in the world has, in just a couple of hundred years, come up with such things as jazz, atomic power, equal rights for people of all persuasions, free education through high school, the first man on the moon, the greatest military in the world, and so many more things? These things did not "just happen". The systems and intellectual concepts that were started, nurtured and promoted by Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, etc., were extremely well thought-out and intended for long-term flexibility. THAT is something you can't find anywhere else in the world! Jefferson and Franklin alone are worth more than the greatest minds of many civilizations combined.
hate to break it to you but the sundial, the clock, printing press, bookstand and bed were all kicking around long before Jefferson came along

with regards to rapid developments in a couple of hundred years - well most people would regard the industrial revolution in the UK 1700-1900 as a far more profound period of invention and developement socially, culturally and technologically....
as i highlighted before the founding fathers didnt "invent" free rights or equality - they were concepts that had been around for a long time - and the bill of rights was merely a progression of the growing enlightened thought of the era.....
Jefferson falls down on so many levels as the greatest mind ever....
if you want a philosospher with a profound impact on civilisation then there are plenty of great minds to choose from - buddha, lao tsu, socrates, plato, descartes,
If you want an inventor with a profound impact - well, there's edison, tessla, leonardo for a start.....
in the field of science - well Newton, Einstein, Darwin, hippocrates......

lets agree - jefferson was a clever guy - very clever - but neither philosophically, technologically or scientifically did he do enough to merit consideration as the greatest mind in human history.......

and with regards to your listing of the greatest achievements of the US in the last 200 years - i think you've sold yourself a bit short if the best you could come up with was nuclear weapons and jazz