EU vs USA

If the EU were a part of the United States of America, would it belong to the richest or poorest group of states?  This is but one of the questions examined in a recent report by Timbro, a free-market think tank located in Stockholm.

So without further ado, I give you EU vs USA in which you will find such quotes as: "Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come any where near."

Agree or disagree, just don't flame the poster -- I merely found the report interesting reading.   

WE can't flame?  Dang...

Seriously though.. this rather long 49 page report is the biggest piece of biased pachyderm poop.  Sorry not very erudite of me to call it that. They call this research?  49 pages to only use 11 key sources that are not statistical and citing yourself twice out of those 11?  Citing the Heritage Foundation?  A "think tank" so far right it is scarey?  The American Enterprise Institute as well? Oh lord how big business friendly can one get? 

Moreover, one of the problems of using GDP as a benchmark or as a comparision is that many  nations figure their GDP and report GDP in different manner.  GDP is also guilty in that it is not always indicative of the real standard of living in a given nation.  That is one of the reasons that GDP is not the only indicator taken into consdieration by the United Nations and other organizations in measuring where nations stand.

Surely the United States is a wonderful place to live for many people.  It is a superpower and has a strong economy.  I just do not appreciate piss poor research methodology nor inherent bias in what is touted as research.  The authors are almost malthusian in their extremes.

WE can't flame?  Dang...

LOL, Vnice, you can flame the report's writers to your heart's content.  Me personally ... I'm not a financial kinda gal.  GDP, disposable income, blah, blah ... all Greek to me.   

BTW, I found this on Metafilter and there are quite a few people debunking this report too.

You go girl!