"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:51:11 -0500, thunder
wrote:

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 07:13:58 -0500, Dave Hall wrote:



Freedom of choice is a big factor in the quality of life. It tends to
cancel out many of the other issues.

In the Human Development Index, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada,
Netherlands, Belgium and Iceland were higher than us. Perhaps, you could
state what freedoms they are lacking.

Oh I don't know........ Could I have a $100,000 aft cabin cruiser and
run it for a season without taking out a mortgage to fill the fuel
tanks on the expected salaries in those respective places?

Could I buy a bunch of firearms and shoot them?

Could I opt out of forced government programs (and the high tax rate
to pay for them), and elect to "go it alone" with my own choices?

Could I keep my classic 60's muscle car, my ultralight airplane, my
dirt bike, snowmobile, jetski, and weed wacker without being shunned
for being out of touch with the environment and taxed out of my mind
as a result?


" The UN Human Development Index (HDI) measures poverty, literacy,
education, life expectancy, and other factors. It is a standard means of
measuring well-being, especially child welfare."

It does not measure any sort of satisfaction or recreational factors
though.

Using anything from the UN as a source automatically disqualifies it.






http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...elopment-Index


But, you are right about achieving wealth, the United States mean wealth
is the highest of any country, unfortunately it's median wealth is much
lower.

Yea, ain't it cool? The rewards for hard work here are hard to
beat.....

Dave