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Do americans...
I seem to have lost e-mail contact with the group but a googlescan revealed
that the thread persists. Jay said that something to the effect that he didn't say income, he said standard of living and then went on to suggest that standard of living is highly subjective. Well of course it's subjective but, if so, why introduce the concept into a comparison unless you think it has some validity? Income (along with life expectancy and infant mortality) is usually are usually considered a good proxy for standard of living on the good old liberal principle that, people like the power of choice income brings. Jay's points about costs, taxes etc would be good except that the world bank figures were for ppp; purchasing power per person, which I understand attempts to take these factors into account. I didn't read up on their methodology so I'm not going to vouch for it; however. All in all, I'd argue that you Americans could have the benefits of living in Scandanavia (if you considered them to be benefits) while enjoying a high material standard of living. Of course you will have to pay higher taxes but you'll get better health care (unless you are rich) and your national team will win more skiing events. Of course, if you are a Brit like me you'll get an American foreign policy high taxes, decrepit health care and win bugger all. But then you can't have everything. BTW I'm going to Hemsedal (Norway) at the end of the month so perhaps I'll report back. andybloger |
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