Over the course of 250 years, there were many years when we were the only democracy, and there were many years when millions of people were voting with their feet about what they think the best country in the world is. Then after WWII, our standard of living was head and shoulders above those of other countries.
Now, I think there are countries with standards of living, levels of education, and democracy on par with ours: much of Western Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. Maybe Korea? But not many others.
I find it quite amusing to cherrypick the last 250 years, and then (probably) have very strict frames for what you call a democracy. I guess the Nordic constitutional monarchies don't count? What about the relatively independent Swiss kantons? For the record, my favorite "best democracy in the world"goes to the Faroe Islands, who established their Thing in 881, and only had an official break in 1816-1852 (unofficially, I'd like to see the islander that would adhere to Danish rule).
http://www.thingsites.com/thing-site-profiles/tinganes-faroeand as far as productivity goes
GDP of US - 16.7T
GDP of EU - 17.5
Population of US - 320m
Population of EU - 507m
1 US worker ~1.5 EU worker in productivity . yes, Dorothy, they do more and do it better, at massive scale.
You do know that EU is a union of several countries with vastly different economy and culture? And that several european countries have elected to stand outside the union? The GDP per capita can be found here, and you can see that e.g. Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland are substantially higher than the US:
By nominal GDP, I'm worth 2 of you (using your logic):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capitaBy correcting for purchasing power, it goes down to 1.2. But that would partly be because a lot the national oil revenue goes into savings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita [1.] Europe may have better work/life balance, but anecdotally it is harder to break into the regular, full time workforce.
[2.]We may be facing a growing problem with income inequality, but around here, customers dressed as working class/casual/tradesmen do, on average, get a higher level of respect by default than they do in other countries. In other countries, clothes make the man/woman because you will get absolutely no help/respect if you appear to be a plebe.
1. Where is this country of Europe you are talking about? I guess it must be close to Spain, because it can't be in northern or western Europe.
2. I would very much like to hear an Australian answer that claim.
-an unbelievable track record of political stability
Political stability, are you sure about this? I seem to remember there has been at least a civil war, the civil rights campaign, more recently you guys have had large scale riots in various places such as Ferguson.
yep, pretty certain about it. no comparison with Australia at all - remind me please what Australia was circa 1770 and what laws it was operating under? Wasn't it still a Queens Dominion during the time of US Civil War? How old is the current constitution of the Australia (from colony , to self governing colony, to Commonwealth ,etc) ? No comparison here at all for political stability. And do not get me started on Europe (with two world wars in 20th century alone), what republic are French under now? how many monarchies that had in between? I know of no other country (and would like to hear it) that kept is primary law through over 2 centuries, may be Swiss did?
The Norwegian Constitution celebrated 200 years in 2014. But most of our laws are based in Magnus Lagabøtes law from 1274. It was followed until King Christian the IV of Denmark-Norway did a translation in 1604 and Christian the V did a major revision in 1687. So it was mainly unchanged for 413 years.
In the Faroes, nobody has ever legally retracted the "Sheep Letter" from 1298. That is 716 years.
I guess I should take part in the "why are we best" contest too?
-Norway has no debt, and the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, ensuring our children's and children's children's state pensions. Through the fund, I own part of Paris, London, Berlin, New York, Washington DC, Boston, Munich, Zurich, and loads of shares in international companies. I can watch my wealth grow here:
http://www.nbim.no/-All the lists you have linked to so far (GDP, PPP, OECD) and a few more (happiness, ease of starting business, little crime, few people in prison, length of (paid) maternity leave...) show us close to the top.
For the "why are we not the best" list:
-As a nation we are extremely self centered, and only see as long as our noses reach. We pretend to care about the environment, but do very little to exploit and export clean enery instead of fossil fuels.
-We are even more full of hot air than the typical US citizens.
-It is damn cold here.