Does the USA REALLY have a lower standard of living than Scandinavia? By what definition?

Question

I've read studies purporting to show that other countries or regions - other economies - have a higher standard of living than the US.

The fault I find with these studies is that they all first pre-define "standard of living" in terms of specific factors, which in economic terms represent specific purchases made through mandatory tax levels higher than those in the US. If the federal government began a music program in which it took money from everyone and provided us each with a CD, it could do that cheaper than we buy our own CDs- it could provide us each with a Miles Davis CD for $8 instead of $15. That would improve my standard of living. But if YOU don't like jazz, YOU'RE out the whole $15. You might not like hiking trails either and you might not get sick often.

"Standard of living" in terms of specific items is subjective - the only objective measure is choice, which in economic terms means per capita income and wealth. Any other measure is a mere contrivance.

Answer 1

There are other studies that indicate the opposite. They compare things such as, do you own a car, how many square feet is your house, do you have central heat and air, do you have cell phone. Etc.

Poor people in the United States have a larger homes, more appliances ect than the average person in Europe. Sweden for example has reduced itself to almost the status of a third world country.

France has about the same land area, and population as California but only about 1/6 the GDP.

The studies which give a lot of weight so socialisation show Europeans as having a higher standard of living. But the fact is the average person in Arkansas, Miss, for Louisiana has about the same standard of living as the average person in Germany.

Answer 2

You are correct in the majority of what you say (not entirely certain the government could provide us with those cd's cheaper, they would probably have to tack on all their bureaucratic stuff to make the final price higher). These studies which show that the US is a lower standard of living are biased and are generally performed by a certain group lobbying for a certain purpose. The most likely purpose with this study is nationalized health care. Scandinavians have very high taxes, somewhere in the 90% range, which goes to pay for a large portion of many different social programs. There is no real choice, as very little of the income is actually kept by the employee. So yes, everyone in Scandanavia has a really great health care plan. In that respect, there is a lower standard of living in the US. But when you take everything together, the US is still better overall.

Answer 3

Yes we do. We're like CHina to Europe. For A long time Work from EUrope is outsourced to AMerca, because we're cheaper. THe problem now is China is even cheaper than us. THere are other surveys to look at. I had an arguement with my old boss. He claims that Americans we;re lazy and Japan was number one in Efficiency. I told him that the US was number one for a decade now and he had to backed down. THe thing is that means employers can make more money from AMerican workers than any developed country. Other surveys show we have the least vacation and second to japan in the amount of days worked for a developed nation. In Europe they get MONTHS of vacation and work around 36 hours a week. THey do get a higher pay, but gets higher taxes. THey also get higher benefits. If you come down to it, they get more value for the hours they work. Its hard to evaluate these figures, I know. CHina's pay is misleading. People quote they make 2 dollars an hour, but they pay no taxes and no rent either. There benefits sucks, but they're quickly increasing.

Answer 4

See http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp_percap-economy-gdp-nominal-per-capita
for GDP per capita. By this measure the US is no longer number one. If you also factor in cost of living, we do better but if you add quality of life measures we do worse. You do not see large scale immigration going either way between the US an Western Europe and both or destinations for immigrants from other countries. Which people prefer is a matter of taste not economics.

Answer 5

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