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Now I am going to suggest something that most people want to ignore, look at the countries on the lists with a low per capita rating and think about the standard of living compared to the higher ones. My first response when people bring up the "standard of living" argument is to say to myself "yeah so what. Who cares? What's the point of bringing this up?" Standard-of-living is a nice statistical tool for economists, but is too general and brings up Western (financial) market biases. Since SoL is based on goods and services consumed, it's inaccuracy at measuring quality of life is seen since it is based on Gross Domestic Product; for example spending on man-made disasters and natural disasters will create a higher Standard of Living for the US (i.e. spending on Iraq, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, federal prisons, etc). Note that Standard of Living does not measure (what I call the "happiness factor", and others call "quality of life" factors), but instead rather inaccurately measures wealth, as you glibly seem to undermine.

From Wikipedia: "The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people, and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population." And Standard of Living is a per capita measure (as you called it "per capita BS"). For example, SoL does not take into account whether a person owns their means of production (like peasant farmers), or whether a person has to do monotonous work in a dark factory all day with supervisors and Bean Counters looking over their shoulder's so that they can afford to use a car to take them to work. I'm sure the SoL would be rather low for Quakers and Mennonites, but Quality of Life (the happiness factor again) would be higher. Living in "poverty" for some people is an ideal. Which brings up another point.

Poverty is also a highly political term, and has everything to do with comparative wealth, and not with the general wealth of a nation. A person living in poverty in the US is different from a person living in poverty in India. And a person living underneath the unofficial poverty line in Canada is different from that in the US and other countries. I remember at one time in Canada the politicians decreased it's unofficial poverty line because of lobbying from the business sector (ref: http://www.ccsd.ca/pr/lico00aj.htm [Note that this article does not discuss the politics, just the statistical change used by Statistics Canada]).

poster wrote:

. . . 81% of all Canadians live below the poverty line . . .

I call bullshit on the 81% bit. Here's the actual stats : Canadian Council on Social Development

More like 16 percent.

It is true that in Europe the vacation system is a bit tricky, but at least it assures that you get a vacation... For instance, in the Netherlands it is legally required to allow an employee a vacation of at least 14 consecutive days. I've never worked with the US approach, but I like the equality that the European system ensures.

Another thing to take into account is what this hard work gets the country. Because of...
...more expensive. True, we work hard, but our hard work reflects in the low product prices and high standard of living.

I understand that a population that's working hard reaps the benefits. This may be reflected in low product prices, but NOT in a high standard of living. You're maybe gauging everybody in the US to your own financial situation, but that's closing your eyes to reality. There are a lot of people working 2 to 3 jobs just to get by. If you compare this with Sweden for example, they have a very high standard of living, including the vacation benefits. True, life may be more expensive there, but they also have a good welfare system, so not a lot of people get left behind like in the US. Here's a nice comparison chart

.. suggests that while Canada has been helpful in the fight against terrorism, it doesn't spend enough on policing and places too much emphasis on civil liberties.

This is interesting.. the following are some stats I found on crime in Canada and the US (and Sweden, see this page.)

- Homicides per 100,000......Canada-1.8..US-5.5
- Assault/Threat per 100,000.Canada-4.0..US-5.7
- Prisoners per 100,000......Canada-118..US-546

While there is a lower class I am of it, while there is a criminal class I am of it, while there is a soul in prison I am not free.

from Passos' The 42nd Parallel