Why are our universities world renowned but our high school system is not?

And here is the Global Innovation Index for 2014

https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=data-analysis

UK #2, US #6.

Here is an example of a research impact study, in this case physics:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/feb/21/uk-overtakes-us-in-research-impact

US is definitely #1 in the field of “making sleek objects seem very desirable”, even if an i-phone is functionally no better than a Samsung.