On US TV the other night there was an "expert" commenting that people may have free public transport to free healthcare in Europe but they can't afford clothes. There seems to be a smug belief in some quarters that the US is superior in every respect and that you will lose out if the US starts to behave like other countries.
Meanwhile the latest expert review of quality of life has *again* given top billing to cities in Europe, Canada and Australasia. The top US city was at #39.
Perhaps the first step in understanding this glaring disparity is to consider what people actually want and how they judge their own quality of life/happiness compared to others.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
