Originally Posted by viribusunitis

GB and France have some military power, but definitely not as much as the US, China, India and so on. But the question is: Who cares? I'm feeling perfectly fine in a neutral country that has no military power whatsoever.

Originally Posted by dba07

BINGO. I'm a professor of business, and when I taught in the US, students were always critical of 'lazy Europeans'. My counter was, "should our lives really revolve around making rich people richer"?

I find Europeans more appreciative of whats important in life, and better at maintaining social connections.

Originally Posted by Enigma777

I agree, and would go farther. I doubt most Americans would rather live in Mississippi than in Europe. I am not really sure of the purpose of this thread, but how is the GDP (even per capita) the major indicator of well-being or happiness? If the richest top 5 percent of the US are the only people benefiting from it, what difference does it make? Productivity as an indicator of happiness? Chinese factories are productive, but are the workers happy? For the disappearing middle class, wages have been

Originally Posted by Neuling

Odd op, most people on this board seem europhobic rather than europhilic to begin with.

And I doubt any Europeans would want to live in Mississippi instead of Europe, not even the Greek.

Originally Posted by Italian (x)lurker

thread is so long but I hope people made you notice GDP and quality of life are two different matters.

Let's put this way
Country A:
I make 100k a year, you make 10k a year, GDP is 60k

Country B:
I make 60k, you earn 50k, GDP is now 55k

wich of these two countries you think is likely to better in terms of jobs, safety, culture?

the best places in the world where to live is where income is more equally distributed, let's take