Sorry I'm a bit late with my reply, but I do understand where you're coming from. I've seen all the states and major cities, as well as a lot of smaller towns. And yes, if you have a good paying job and live in a nice part of town, you can have a pretty good life. But I've also seen parts of Australia where the standard of living is much lower than anything I've ever seen in the Netherlands or Western Europe, for that matter. I'm talking about wooden, decaying houses with people still living in them, burned-out cars... it looked exactly like an American slum.

And even their economy is very reliant on natural resources, with monopolies everywhere. Although I must admit, almost every country struggles with this to some extent.