"If you get the GDP and remove the top 5% of rich people, the average citizens' wealth changes a lot. " You made that figure up! The reason I also included the

"If you get the GDP and remove the top 5% of rich people, the average citizens' wealth changes a lot. " You made that figure up! The reason I also included the Gini coefficient was to demonstrate that income inequality in the US is reasonably low too. "Don't confuse economical prosperity with freedom." I didn't. I included BOTH Freedom House's ranking of political freedom (which equates the US as politically equal to Western Europe) AND economic freedom (which sets the US much higher than Europe.) According to Freedom House freedom of the press in the US is as free as Europe: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2006 http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2006 "Where I come from, free access all the way up to PhD education is the norm" It's not free. You pay for it in high taxes all your life. Anyway the point is moot as even though you have a "free" education system in Europe the US still has a higher amount of university educated people than Europe according to the OECD.