The last point from that link – who has air conditioning – is a very interesting one. Economists such as Robert Gordon have done research on this and found that correcting for necessary 'defensive' expenditures such as air conditioning erodes a lot of the supposed income gap between US and EU. (To see the point, consider, for example, how much Australian GDP is “boosted” by expenditure fighting forest fires, expenditure that, say, cool Norway just doesn't have to do.)

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the all important leisure-labour trade off. GDP per hour worked, or more strictly per hour productivity (as measured by the Total Economy Database), was higher in Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands than in the US, while France – that bastion of Old Europe – had productivity levels that were 99% of those in the US. Many people in Europe are much happier with 4 weeks holidays a year than if they had to give up half their holidays to boost the nation's GDP per capita.

Sure standards of living should account for that!

RonanL