Can quality of life be a superpower? Ask Finland

THE EUROPEAN UNION doesn’t have much to brag about these days. Its own officials admit its penchant for red tape looks more like a burden than a benefit. Yet if the old label of “regulatory superpower” is out, the moniker of “lifestyle superpower” is definitely in.“Europe has created a lifestyle...It’s a superpower with the highest living and social standards in the world,’ EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela said in July.

- LIONEL LAURENT

This will no doubt prompt laughs from those who know so-called “europoors” moving to Dubai or San Francisco for less tax or better pay. But it’s pretty accurate, as business school Insead’s latest ranking for attracting talent suggests. Income inequality, social mobility, and life expectancy in the EU all screen better than the US, even if gross domestic product doesn’t. There’s little in Europe that compares with the opioid crisis; cities are safer; infant mortality is lower. European living standards have a far smaller gap with Americans’ than GDP suggests, according to Copenhagen-based think tank Europa. While New Yorkers aspire to send out baby boxes with essential items for new mothers, Finland, the world’s happiest country with a population of around 5.6 million, has pioneered them for almost a century, as the book Finntopia lays out.