Hm, the problem with PPP is that it's very unclear what it's measuring. Someone with a wal-mart nearby has a higher "PPP" than someone without it. Definitely Americans have access to a lot of cheap crap; it would not surprise me if an average income earner in the Mississippi could indeed buy more random junk each year than your average German.

Purchasing power and quality of life, though, are two very different things. The idea that your average "Mississipean" has a higher quality of life than your average German is laughable. Intuitively, I would have thought Germany was higher overall than the USA, quite a lot higher.