>>Again, I do not see why this was mentioned in response to me.

I'm trying to suggest other parameters that contribute to a happy successful economy. Switzerland and Germany's European labor provisions show few connections to unemployment and citizens drive late model BMWs and take their vacations on the Mediterannean. Clearly there's something else going on that, if emulated, could deliver benefit in other economies. Innovation is just one such item. I raised it because it used to be a key US advantage that drove economic success. Focusing on unemployment in spendthrift European nations is not as interesting, especially when spending more than you earn has had a predictable result for all recorded history. That's another reason to look at Germany and Switzerland if people don't want to end up like Greece.

>>Are you shifting focus to a more elusive "standard of living" comparisson? If the latter then we'll need to define "standard of living". I'll start with wages.

OK. now add crime, threat of conflict, medical care, government interference, weather, schooling, amenities, transport, etc etc. If it was just wages, Manhattan and Tokyo would be leaders, but factor in all the other parameters and they're well down the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_Living_Survey