How is the wealthiest country in the world not have the highest quality of life?

About 25 years ago I lived in North Carolina. I thought it was a beautiful place to live. My landlord was this husband and wife. One day, the husband gave his wife a trip to Europe.Unfortunately, once there she refused to come back. It was not a Love thing. She constantly requested he come to Europe to be with her and he sometimes went, but when it came time to return home to the USA, she refused to return with him. According to a index on the quality of life the USA scores under Ireland and France. Could it be that, even though we are the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, we are no longer the most comfortable? http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/mostlivable-leastlivable-countries-2007.html To SumGuy France is rather densely populated, Per square mile it is more than comparable to the US

Public Comments

1. Well, because Iceland and other Nordic Countries have relatively small populations, therefore more money and resources can be given to them instead of spreading it among a population of over 300,000,000 people. edit: Density? Population density has nothing to do with living conditions, in general, urban populations tend to live much better than rural populations. (France has a population of about 60 million, while we have 5x that (Not including the thousands of illegal immigrants that come in this country every week.)
2. Its down to spending priorities. In the US the amount you spend on defence is larger than the next 10 countries combined. France spends more money on social welfare schemes, education and medical. This is done at governmental level, whereas in the US its done privately. If you raised taxes in the US you could spend more to create a higher standard of living for all. However, innovation is higher in the US as is the standard of post graduate education and research. There is a trade off.