The World’s Happiest Countries… U.S. Out of Top 10

[Geee]

Fox Business:

Today, I came across a new survey that made me stop and think, and I thought you might like it too. It's called the Legatum Prosperity Index, and the idea is that GDP isn't enough in determining which countries are truly prosperous.

The Legatum people take into account opportunity, education, health, and personal safety, among other categories. The idea is that it's not just the money; it's how happy you are too.

Now, having introduced that index, I don't agree with its findings. We rank just 12 out of 142 nations. Take a look at this…

We get high marks for:

Health: we are actually No.2 in this category. It surprised me, until I read that the authors consider both amounts of public spending. We sure do a lot of that.

Education: the authors see quality of and access to schools as contributing mightily to prosperity. Makes sense.

Governance: we are No. 10. Presumably the data was tallied before congress dithered on the Fiscal Cliff and budget ceiling.