I thought you must have bigger houses? no? I mean how can you claim to have better standard of living and live happier life in a small house without any space?
Standard of living and various happiness indices include so much more than could be fitted into the term purchasing power (which is higher in the US than in most of the world).
My standard of living is very dependent on 5-6 weeks paid holiday, 6-12 months paid paternity leave and so on. In my income bracket I could afford those things just by saving, that is, I pay more for them through taxes than I receive back, but I'm still strongly for them. Among other things because only through normalizing long paternal leaves did it become acceptable to employers to interrupt your career 6-12 months 1-3 times in a career, without being classed as "not motivated" or passed over for promotions etc.
OH BOY.
Having a huge house doesn't actually make you happy. You only think it does.
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/qa-stuffocation-...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/dont-indulg...
You can't say that in "better standard of living", home size matters and home location doesn't. Europeans have less sprawl but smaller houses, that's just it.
And urban city outskirts aren't so much fun (still small apartments but not much life; crime is sometimes a problem too). Not much better than suburbia.
Different strokes for different folks, Benji. Not everyone wants to live in the city where everything is so tight and expensive. Not everyone wants to live in the country where everything is so god damned far away.
Some want to live relatively close to their work, have large sized yards like you would in rural areas, but still have access to shopping and amenities similar to cities.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=78c...