Canadian Politics Today

How come all the socialist (read - Entitled) European countries with work/life balance and heavy taxation aren't falling apart economically and have such better standard of living and happier citizens? 

Who says socialist=entitled? And who says they have a better standard of living? I'm no expert, but it seems to me that most Europeans don't focus so much on things as the Americans do - and we tend to take after the Americans since much of our culture is seen through their TV shows and movies. My understanding is house/apartment sizes tend to be much smaller, people are much less likely to have cars, much less multiple cars. On the other hand, most Europeans get way more vacation time than we do and work to live rather than living to work.

How come the US has so much more maternal mortality than the rest of the developed world even though their healthcare is private and top tier?  How come their taxation is slightly below ours yet their citizens have so little compared to ours?

The US is separate countries. If you do the stats on just the White part of America you'll find that they are wealthier than us and have much bigger houses on much bigger plots of land, as well as very low infant mortality rates. These are, by and large, people with good health care plans(though not not ALL of them obviously). If you examine Blacks and Hispanics, on the other hand, the statistics will be considerably different.

What measure should we really be using to assess a country's performance when it comes to taxation and providing for its citizens?

That's hard to say since what makes the people in one nation happy won't suffice for the people in another. The Americans are obsessed with personal freedom and government non-interference, for example, but Europeans, not so much. I would say that the life of a Frenchman or British man or Dutchman is largely better than that of the average American (or Canadian), with less stress and more vacation time. People have less money, but the government does more for them. But it's not as simple as just going their way and upping taxes. We spend about the same on our public health care as they do on theirs, for example, but we don't get as much for it.