This kind of comparison always neglects to consider the fact that any given European country is much smaller and much more homogeneous than the US. Which US state are you comparing to?

Using the Human Development Index (HDI) as a passable proxy for standard of living:

Mississippi has an HDI of 0.866, about the same as Portugal and somewhat higher than Bulgaria (the lowest HDI in the EU) at 0.799.

Massachusetts has an HDI of 0.949, which is about the same as Germany and only a tiny bit lower than #1 Switzerland's 0.967.

In other words: both Europe and the US span a wide range of HDI scores, but the European Union has a wider range in both directions. Europe is both better and worse than the US, depending on where in Europe and where in the US you're talking about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Dev...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...

> This kind of comparison always neglects to consider the fact that any given European country is much smaller and much more homogeneous than the US. Which US state are you comparing to?

I'm aware of the criticism of Apples to Oranges. I assume given such a basic level of criticism on any comparison between the US and Europe that it's no longer remotely relevant because to any study ranking would clearly account for that.

Oxford Economics just released their 1000 cities index, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-21/new-york-...

The US dominated in the economic advantage, and europe dominated in the quality of life index.

HDI in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore are also very high. Tokyo is crazy high -- on the same level as Switzerland.

Europe also experienced a pandemic, has even worse inflation and worse unemployment. It could just be cultural attitudes make European cities a more pleasant place to live.

> It could just be cultural attitudes make European cities a more pleasant place to live.

Cultural attitudes certainly, particularly around work vs leisure. Also mass transit systems, and social supports for people working in the service industry.

The criticisms for europe are that it takes a lot of tax revenue to support those things, bureaucracy, strikes, etc.

Im not saying one system is better than the other--just that in the US, despite our massive economic might, our standard of living sucks.

Mass transits and more pleasant places to live are probably correlated with more tax efficient policies.

It's just that the USA has accumulated a number of unfair advantages.

Did it really? When I was a kid in the 90s we went to McDonalds once a year for my birthday.