It also takes into account that EU and/or Scandinavian residents tend to both earn and pay considerably more than in places like the US. As I pointed out in my response to rt, you can easily figure out where PPP orginated (and where any bias likely lies) by checking which country has the same figure for both nominal and PPP GDP: The US. You could argue that the PPP perspective (PPPP? ) puts America at the center of a spectrum whose poles are brutal impoverished despotisms and welfare states with high production, wages, social services--and taxes. From that perspective, the US definitely gets the most bang for its buck per capita; only the EU has a (marginally) higher PPP GDP, and needs an extra 200,000,000 producers and consumers to get it. Of course, there IS a good argument to be made that one should consider the source of that perspective.

Short form of the above, there may be some bias in the PPP stats, but, if so, any evaluation of it should look as much at the nations with LOWER PPP GDP as those with lower ones. Perhaps surprisingly, on the numbers alone PPP GDP is a better argument against socialism than FOR anything else.