[schlockandflaws]

How do you feel about US Government sources? The CIA World Factbook - GDP - per capita has the US in 10th place.
http://tinyurl.com/25u8lz

46th in life expectancy
http://tinyurl.com/2aeqdj

1st in purchasing power
http://tinyurl.com/2egrl4

and 2nd in external debt
http://tinyurl.com/237qug

[Slings and Arrows]

The magic number there is “First in Purchasing Power.” Raw GDP is meaningless; the question is what you can buy with it.

External debt - w.r.t. quality of life, who cares?

46th in life expectancy? Factor out the underclass (who can afford to be so due to generous welfare benefits) and “uninvited guest workers,” and that goes up a lot. Furthermore, some of that is a result of prosperity - you don’t see too many famine victims dying of heart attacks. Furthermore, there are numerous ways to cook life expectancy statistics - and the worse the country, the more likely they are to do so.

[endthematrix]

"How do you feel about US Government sources?"

How do you? They rank rank 10th in reliability...