The thing is those European countries have much smaller populations than we do. Out of our 320 million population you could take much more people than their small populations who would fall under the criteria you posted. There are only 2 countries with larger populations than us and they are in much worse shape than we are. Everyone talks about China's middle class being larger than our entire population. What they don't say is what constitutes middle class in China is closer to our working class. They don't talk about the more than 500 million Chinese living in dire poverty. And the Chinese are polluting themselves to death too. Our environment is pristine in comparison. People can manipulate statistics but the U.S. is a long way from a developing nation. But there are definitely tiers of existence in this country and those on the lowest tiers struggle. Plenty of room for improvement.
yea its true the size of america is an issue. yea the wages are rising in china and the middle class is growing i believe, but im not sure how they define those conditions. i mean lets get this straight, its capitalism out there and the government is a dictatorship which comes in with violence. but really china is an example of why i hate capitalism because the working conditions are hell there, and they are not very good in lots of parts of america as well. but anyways the pollution in china, and low wages are some of the reasons capitalist jobs are leaving developed countries and going to the third world.
ralph nader calls america a highly developed 3rd world country. im not sure what the other guys i listen to call it, i think only him, but anyways its really strange alot of the things america doesnt have that other developed counties have like guaranteed maternity leave, or guaranteed vacation, or guaranteed healthcare, or the prison population, etc.
i mean for example america doesnt guarantee vacation which in another way is saying theres no law for how much vacation time per year; the government doesnt plan it. so vacation time is left to the free market. and in this example americans statistically take less than 4 weeks vacation, and some workers dont get any! so this is an example of how the free market is not always the best thing.