The paper you cite really only talks in terms of access to/possession of goods. So yes, in the US you may be more likely to possess a car than someone in Bhutan. But whether that is better is debatable.

By comparison it's interesting to look at 'happiness', obviously that has it's own problems in terms of quantifiability. However, at least it involves asking the poor how well off they are.

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic457678.files//Hap... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness