Western Europeans enjoy a standard of living surpassed by no one in the world

Of course they still have right wing whackos, and we are all going to have peak oil problems.

http://streetlightblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/were-number-two.html

But just looking at national income data in isolation is insufficient, so I also assembled a variety of other indicators of economic well-being. Those indicators also generally confirm the suspicion that Western Europe is now "richer" than the US. To make the comparison even more striking, the data shows that Western Europeans enjoy a standard of living surpassed by no one in the world while also having hundreds of extra leisure hours per year compared to Americans. Not a bad combination!

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A generation ago, the US was indisputably the richest and most advanced country in the world. And for decades after the second world war, Western Europe had been playing catch-up. "Convergence" is the term economists use to describe that process of catching up to the leading economy, and much of Europe's economic growth during the second half of the 20th century can be described by that term.

But some time around the turn of the millenium I think that convergence was complete. And since then, the continuing improvements in living standards in Europe, and the stagnation of living standards in the US, have meant that convergence has actually become divergence, with Western Europeans pulling ahead of Americans in their quality of life.

Why has this happened? The most striking systematic difference between the European economies and the US is the role played by the government. And I think that's exactly where we need to look for an explanation. Specifically, I would argue that the fundamental problem is that the US has for years been skimping on the types of crucial long-term investments that help economies develop, such education and infrastructure, while European governments have more actively sought to shape the future and prepare their countries for it. And that difference is now gradually translating into more affluence for Europeans, and stagnation for Americans.

real strides in elections in country after country.

One moment they say they want to find 'disposable income', so they take off what is spent on health and education - which are more expensive in the US; the next moment they say they want to use the current exchange rates, rather than purchasing power rates. But if you want to compare a standard of living, you have to use purchasing power rates.

What the blogger tries to do is say "some things like health and education cost more in the USA, so we'll allow for that; but other things (housing? food?) cost more in Europe, but we won't use the figures that allow for that".

but my standard of living is higher, i have more free time, i have health care, university tuition is 4 euros for poor people so my daughter's schooling will be no problem, we have a shorter work week, more holidays, more paid vacation time, pre school is free and state run from age 3, trains are fast and cheap, buses slow and even cheaper, violence is low,

it is true that i dont have 20 000 to throw down on a car but i am sittin pretty with all the free time i have compared to my friends in the usa.

in fact, I'm driving a 98 chev truck cause I can't afford to upgrade and my homeowners insurance premium is 3K a year along with 2K for the truck and a 01 hyundai.

I feel I'm doing better than some others but, I sure as hell can't afford to help my grandkids out with a university education.

to just around a thousand euros per year all together. i only earn about 20 000 us dollars a year but i have a 12 hour work week for 6 months of the year.....the rest of the time is my vacation time.

you get a 7 month contract from the state, then you go on unemployment for 5 months at 75% slaray. Some years i have been at the university and that pays better. i also do overtime, i get 40 an hour for teaching english at universities. my goal to to get by, pay my bills, and have weed and vacation money, after that i dont work anymore.

(Sounds good, Reggie. And I think many Americans would agree if they only knew.)

The worst thing in the world, according to most Americans.

We demand our right to work 100 hours per work, never see our families, work on holidays, live in a country where it is dangerous, where there is no public transportation, and where we have a general lower quality of life and lower life expectancy.