Much better. And largely unrelated to GNP.

I agree. I think if we really want to make some kind of a political statement out of it, we should be looking at the median income in PPP. More importantly, we should be looking at the deviations. If there are two people living in a country with a median income of 2 million dollars, it could still mean that one person makes a buck a year, and the other one makes 4 mil. The context is important.
Sure, people are materialistic and status-oriented. As a result, they associate happiness, peer respect, and accomplishment with how much stuff they acquire. There's nothing wrong with consumerism in my estimation. It would be silly to argue that European cultures are not consumer-driven. The larger issue here is, is that all we have out there? Is that what makes up the fabric of our societies?
Thanks!

Mikhail from SF

Does anybody know where we might find median PPP income figures? I haven't had any luck locating them.

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
Czeslaw Milosz

an excellent suggestion.  I wonder what the difference between the US and EU would be on this, I suspect that with the EU15 Median PPP would be higher than in the US.  

I've always wondered whether a media PPP figure is available, or even possible (seems like a huge amount of work, even if you break it out into income categories and weight it.)

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg