'general quality of life for the average American is worse than many places in Western Europe'. Maybe but here's food for thought - Fraser Nelson of the UK Spectator found that if Britain were to somehow leave the EU and join the US it'd be the 2nd-poorest state in the union. Poorer than Missouri. "Poorer than the much-maligned Kansas and Alabama. Poorer than any state other than Mississippi, and if you take out the south east we’d be poorer than that too."

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/08/why-britain...