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