Default is, probably, just part of a money stealing scheme, nothing special, it is same everywhere - get loads of government money and then bust - US, especially Russia, China - all the same.
The difference in so called "standard of living", however, is very simple thing. For example, uneducated people who making roads in Sweden receiving around 3k euro salary, while exactly the same job in, say, China is just to get food and rent. Similarly, German working class enjoys very high wages, which makes any "fair" competition with Asian cheap labor impossible. Then big companies employs tricks, such as assigning taxes for Chinese solar panels in EU, just to protect inflated wages of its working class. Actually all this is the very basics of micro-economy, so nothing to discuss here.
The difference in so called "standard of living", however, is very simple thing. For example, uneducated people who making roads in Sweden receiving around 3k euro salary, while exactly the same job in, say, China is just to get food and rent. Similarly, German working class enjoys very high wages, which makes any "fair" competition with Asian cheap labor impossible. Then big companies employs tricks, such as assigning taxes for Chinese solar panels in EU, just to protect inflated wages of its working class. Actually all this is the very basics of micro-economy, so nothing to discuss here.