Well that's not true. Europe and Japan powered through the late 40s through 60s with emphasis on rebuilding and exports. In good part that's how Japan built the place they had in the 80s with electronics and cars - through post war restructuring and Deming et al, sustained boom, and exporting. 1960s and 1970s globalisation was the four Asian tigers: Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan producing the cheap goods we now associate with China.

Even the UK, in the seventies often referred to as "sick man of Europe", had built an unprecedented period of growth, falling inequality, and extreme exporting. The immediate post-war saw "export or die" as the political catchphrase.

The marked difference is, unlike the US who had profited hugely from WW2, those economies started from near bankruptcy in 1945 so took a little longer to reach boom.

Could we reproduce similar conditions? No. Could we have an economy that benefits a far wider proportion of citizens and makes it feel like a boom or expansion for them? Most certainly.