I am new to the list but a long-time lurker (10 years or so). My academic work is on precisely this topic. If anyone is interested I can expand on that.
I have lived at length in the US (I am American born) and in Europe (for about half of my life in 4 countries).
I am not sure exactly what is happening in this debate. Is someone seriously arguing that several European states don't have significantly better conditions as measured with quite a few different indicators and that life is not as a result on average significantly more agreeable for a higher percentage of the respective populations?
Thanks for the clarification...