"Much American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to quality of life."

Of course, the main reason the Europeans have this better standard of living is because they never had the entire culture force feed them the notion that socialism was an affront to all things good and decent. In other words, they've actually taken some of their profits and invested them in society, instead of simply forking over all wealth to the cocksuckers on the top of the heap.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Real sacrifice wouldn’t be required, however, because living standards are not tightly coupled to consumption rates. Much American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to quality of life. For example, per capita oil consumption in Western Europe is about half of ours, yet Western Europe’s standard of living is higher by any reasonable criterion, including life expectancy, health, infant mortality, access to medical care, financial security after retirement, vacation time, quality of public schools and support for the arts.