National wealth:
2008 data from siteresources.worldbank.org
Gross national income (GNI) per capita. Similar to GNP.
GNI is Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plus income received from other countries (notably interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries.
Purchasing power parity (PPP) equalizes the purchasing power of different currencies in their home countries for a given basket of goods. Using a PPP basis is arguably more useful when comparing differences in living standards on the whole between nations because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of different countries, rather than just a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) comparison.

See: Global Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures (pdf) at the World Bank

Source: fraser.stlouisfed.org/publications/erp/page/9674/download/47574/9674_ERP.pdf See Also:
A Comparison Between The Us And Other Rich Nations at huppi.com
The income taxes people really pay - OECD Observer
Income Taxes By Country - Wikipedia

Business Taxes
Total Tax Index (TTI) relative to the US from KPMG

Rank		Country	TTI
2008	2010
1	1	Mexico	60
3	2	Canada	64
2	3	Netherlands	76
4	4	Australia	81
6	5	United Kingdom	88
5	6	United States	100
8	7	Germany	124
9	8	Italy	130
7	9	Japan	138
10	10	France	181

Total tax burden faced by companies, including income tax, capital tax, sales tax, property tax, miscellaneous local business taxes, and statutory labor costs.

Books:
Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope for an Insecure Age, by Steven Hill

Links:
A Comparison Between The Us And Other Rich Nations at huppi.com
Best Countries
Crime Rates
NPR interview of Steven Hill
Countries with the largest populations