>The U.S. may not be number 1 in the quality of life list, but it is number 10. Simply because we have too many people living at or below the poverty level. I agree with you on that one completely. For a wealthy country, we have a lot of poor folks. Still, I count number 10 as being in the top of the list.

I saw some statistics that indicated 16th, but I recognize it is difficult to measure. Yes, in your country the is a tremendous gap between rich and poor, which I presonally regard as something bad. We have to go back at least a century to see that division in europe. The Question of course is why did we move away from it? Is it a better model?

Walter,