Jealousy, perhaps

George Adair has an excellent series of posts at his blog, EU Rota, that expose the MSM's anti-American "template":

In visiting some of my favorite blogs I noticed one component was missing from my recent "dead and dying in America" series, the series should have been "dead, dying, and poor in America". These anti-US themes are part and parcel of the MSM's core beliefs on both sides of the Atlantic, a template if you will. Dead, dying, and poor Americans fits the MSM template far better than "alive, vibrant, and prospering" Americans. But are the anti-US pronouncements by the MSM true? As it relates to the "dead and dying" portion of the anti-US template fostered and advanced by members of the MSM, obviously not (here and here).
The third pillar of the MSM template, poverty. What about the MSM generated perception that 99% of all Americans are living in a subjugated state of poverty many steps below serfdom? Fortunately for our friends on the extreme Left and the MSM, poverty and economic trends are quantifiable. Despite the attempts by many bloggers to provide actual facts and data (my own here), the MSM seems to be too busy in their world of grays to notice reality. Some time back a friend provided me with an excellent and factual report of poverty in the US and the EU courtesy of Timbro. What does the report find about economic comparisons between the two?

Do read the whole post. Here is the Timbro report's abstract:

If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. In fact, GDP per capita is lower in the vast majority of the EU-countries (EU 15) than in most of the individual American states. This puts Europeans at a level of prosperity on par with states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Only the miniscule country of Luxembourg has higher per capita GDP than the average state in the USA. The results of the new study represent a grave critique of European economic policy.
Stark differences become apparent when comparing official economic statistics. Europe lags behind the USA when comparing GDP per capita and GDP growth rates. The current economic debate among EU leaders lacks an understanding of the gravity of the situation in many European countries. Structural reforms of the European economy as well as far reaching welfare reforms are well overdue. The Lisbon process lacks true impetus, nor is it sufficient to improve the economic prospects of the EU.

While this summary is suitably scathing, I could not resist copying EU Rota's much more striking table that appears at right. The thought of all those superior-feeling Euro-lefties choking and spluttering when they actually see how most of the deplorable "Red states" rank higher than their vaunted social economies just made me smile.