The claim I made is that countries that are nice societies to live in for the average person are strongly correlated with countries that have good social welfare systems.  None of the countries you listed fall under what I consider to be nice societies to live in for the average person.  China does not meet my standard due to lack of freedom, pollution, level of grinding poverty, corruption, etc.<p>It seems as though you are under the impression that I was claiming the converse is true. I was not.  Canada, Japan, Denmark, France, UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Austria are examples of countries that are nice places to live in for the average person that have a strong social safety net for the people.