[SeekAndFind]

Last month, the U.N. Settlements program released its own "City Prosperity Index," which ranked a handful of the world's cities according to its own metric determining which were the most prosperous.

Here are the top twenty countries:

1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. Canada
7. Finland
8. Netherlands
9. Switzerland
10. Ireland
11. Luxembourg
12. United States
13. United Kingdom
14. Germany
15. Iceland
16. Austria
17. Belgium
18. Hong Kong
19. Singapore
20. Taiwan

SEE ALSO: Why the world's most prosperous cities are in Europe »

[Vigilanteman]

They probably aren't counting micro nations like Monaco and Liechtenstein. Still, when I was a boy, the United States was second to none and Singapore was struggling to emerge from third world status.

[mom4melody]

Obama built that...

[txhurl]

Have the Ice Countries found a way to repel the commies?

This needs to be handed to Mitt on day 1 - a to-do list. Most of these can be fixed by repealing bad liberal law.

[Monorprise]

While the reasons for our drop are most illegitimate categories. Loss in economic freedom and faith in hard work.(Economic activities will not get done if people can’t or wont work hard.)

I have always found theses list misleading because of the inclusion of completely non-related figures like healthcare coverage numbers that have nothing to do with economic productivity and indeed only reflect their twisted idea of how a system “must work”. In this case an idea that rejects the very notion of price selection intelligently controlling resource allocation. The very foundation of any free economy.

So instead anyone who does not follow their pattern is docked. But still their right about many if not most of their figures.

[Monorprise]

While the reasons for our drop are most legitimate categories. IE: Loss in economic freedom and faith in hard work.(Economic activities will not get done if people can’t or wont work hard.)

I have always found theses list misleading because of the inclusion of completely non-related figures like healthcare coverage numbers. As if the way one manages a particular resource is to be decided BY THEM to be most efficient.

In this case they generally measure the share of the population who have 3rd parties paying for their healthcare bill rather than managing that resource themselves as they see fit. Shockingly they almost always assume that a 3rd party makes the most efficient and desirable choices. Which is why they measure the share of the population partispating in such a scheme as a factor in their list.