You're half right - the countries with the best standards of living in the world are the ones that have social services that are paid for by publicly owned oil profits, then other resource extraction profits, then taxes. Scandinavia and Canada are routinely the best. Another important feature of these countries is not a nationalised health service like the UK, but a guaranteed minimum standard insurance with a competitive market for provision. See http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/.
Only Norway has a substantial amount of natural reserves in the Scandinavian countries, with Denmark a distant second.
Also, the healthcare system you talk about is the Swiss, the Scandinavian and Canadian systems do NOT have anything close to an insurer (except the State itself).
Re healthcare: I was talking about Scandinavian and Canadian systems. Government pays the cost but private companies provide the service. Contrasted to the UK where government provides the service.
I wish people would stop saying Scandinavia as though it were a country. It is not and the differences between the countries in Scandinavia are substantial. For instance:
Oil and gas: Norway has lots, Denmark a little, Sweden none.
Mineral resources: Sweden has lots, Norway has some, Denmark almost none.
Forestry: Sweden has lots, Norway has some but it's uneconomic because of the terrain, Denmark very little (except Christmas trees).
Hydropower: Norway has lots (98% of electricity), Sweden has some, Denmark almost none.
Land area:Sweden twice the size of the UK, Norway 60% bigger than UK, Denmark half the size of the UK.
I can't speak for Sweden and Denmark but here in Norway whilst private institutions provide services (X-rays, MRI, etc.) under contract to the state, the hospitals are nonetheless public institutions (barring a few, and as far as I can tell not very successful, private hospitals).
What does seem to unite the three Scandinavian countries is a general belief that we really are in it all together. When a rich owner of a chain of supermarkets started making a noise about moving to Switzerland because he was fed up of paying high taxes he was immediately told to " off then" not just by us poor peasants (of course there aren't many genuinely poor here) but also by other seriously rich people. It wasn't long before he was back here.
I don't think your theory is very good re: natural resources. Sure, some developed countries have a lot of natural resources, but most don't, include many associated with the highest standards of living and socialized care.
