[mikelangr]

Neewsweeks - best countries to live in (measured afte five indicators)

1. Finland
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Luxembourg
6. Norway
7. Canada
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Denmark
11. United States

US' places on the five indicators.
http://oi52.tinypic.com/vcisn.jpg
Quite bad places for education and health.

The two top places goes to Finland and Switzerland where food (and particulary restaurants) is much more expensive than in USA (I mention food because I recall a conversation with JackKnightStick about how expensive Switzerland is).

HDL index
1. Norway 0.971
2. Australia 0.970
3. Iceland 0.969
4. Canada 0.966
5. Ireland 0.965
6. Netherlands 0.964
7. Sweden 0.963
8. France 0.961
9. Switzerland 0.960
10. Japan 0.960
11. Luxembourg 0.960
12. Finland 0.959
13. United States 0.956

---------- Post added 2010-10-18 at 13:12 ----------

The reason for poor health is probably because fast food is cheaper than other food, and because of expensive health care.

The reason for poor education might be due to many hispanics and low class people, and because educated seem to be something bad in USA.

[QQQQQ-Trek]

1. I wouldn't say they rank particularily poorly, near top anyway. 2. It's a very large country, with large differences between different social classes.

[Trientoriciom]

Because your type of capitalism with big immoral corporations that dominate your markets and large differences between the 'have's and have nots' dont equate with high standard of living for the entire population.

[koebforfrn]

I wonder what would make US rank higher.

[AbraroLib]

I wonder what would make US rank higher.

It would be funnier if you typed that with a lisp

[orerviche]

Do you have the source for these data?

[citalopram]

Here you go

http://www.newsweek.com/content/news...countries.html


And the other list
https://www.forumbiodiversity.com/showthread.php?t=9843 (ask him where he got the list)

[VioletttaJosetta]

LOL American ranked higher than Germany, France, and the UK, good enough.

Switzerland is smaller than my state and heavily reliant on exporting overpriced high end brands to its poorer neighbors, also on shady banking enterprises. They also export far more than they import, at the same time they have a nation 4 hours across (my state is 6 hours across) and their nation has 7 million people, my state has 8 million, and it is a medium size state.

It is much harder to compare a small ethnically homogeneous, geographically homogeneous state as big as a booger to a continent size nation that is highly ethnically diverse, has a lot more immigrants.

Here is what I do know:

Our education system at the primary and secondary level is not that great, but at the university level it is the best in the world. That is indisputable. We also have more university educated people than every nation in Europe. The only nation higher than us, I believe is Canada and Japan.

Health Care is not that expensive, it is more expensive in Switzerland, as they pay for insurance, it is subsidized, but they pay more than I do in the U.S., and I have good insurance. It is the issue that Americans culturally don't run to the doctor every time they get a "cold" or the "flu" as Europeans (or even Canadians do). We should, but we don't. We see it as being "weak" and we will just "get over it" so preventive medicine is not done properly. It has nothing to do with access.

How are they judging "political environment" what is the criteria?

As far as economic dynamism...Switzerland is full of very strong unions that promote stupid rules. They had a vote in my fiancee's Cantons about allowing stores to stay open on Sunday or on weeknights passed 7PM...that's insane to me.

Most major grocery stores here are open 24 hours, and on Sundays, they might close early, but not until 5PM or 6PM.

TO me this hurts my standard of living to have less options.

The reason this happens in Switzerland is because strong unions are a barrier to entry. The Unions goal is to get as much money out of the employer for as little work as possible. So cashiers in Switzerland at grocery stores get paid US$15 or higher an hour, where in America they get minimum wage (US$8), that cost is passed on to someone isn't it? That's why food is so expensive, not including taxes, Canton tax, value added tax, national tax, blah blah blah...

The Unions like this barrier to job entry crap,so they come up with all these requirements...even cashiers need training certificates? Are you fucking joking me? I was a cashier in high school for two years, and I didn't have to go to a special school to learn how to use a fucking cash register. It is all a labor-union scam. You create a barrier to entry which they control, and they control who gets hired, you have to deal with them...

It is worse in Franc,e which is why the labor market is so inflexible and it is so hard for young people to get hired, because you have older lazy bastards sitting on their ass on good paying union jobs, getting paid a lot because they have been there forever, not due to their work ethic, and a young kid who has no job skills, won't be getting any. So he sits at home on welfare, angry.

Switzerland is not as bad as France, but similar. I don't see this as superior. While America wages are lower, more people work, and they have more money in their pocket to spend.

The more options I have the more empowered I feel, the more I feel my living standard is raised.

Hell in Switzerland you have to give people 3 months notice to move out of your damn apartment. WHAT? What if I live in Zurich, got a job in Geneve, and they need me to start working in 3 weeks ?? I have to pay rent at two places? That is stupid. You have to give employers 1 month notice to leave your freaking job.

In most states in America, it is "right to work" meaning you can be fired at any time (but if fired for no reason they have to pay you unemployment for a given time) or you can quit at any time (no penalty on you, but they likely won't give you a good recommendation without 2 weeks notice but 2 weeks is better than 4 or 6 weeks like in Switzerland).

All these things make society inflexible and have an economic cost. I don't see how it is superior.


I guess when they think of "Quality of LIfe" they are also looking at crime.

I live next to a city of 2 million people, larger than any city in Switzerland, someone gets murdered every week, sometimes twice a week, but it is isolated in a ghetto area. I can't remember when the last time there was a murder in my area...maybe years ago. Most crime we have is people breaking into cars, and we had some pervert running around at night touching women's butts or something stupid. That's about it. Where I live is as safe as Zurich. Crime in America is rarely random and it is not dispersed evenly. It is usually personal, it is often drug or gang related, and it is almost always poor people in poor neighborhoods who do the most violent crime.

If you aren't poor (and most Americans are not) you don't experience too much crime, unless you live on the edge of a bad area.

Also, my car. American has good highways, that I don't have to pay a highway tax to drive on. There are toll roads, but they are optional and in most places, few. Getting a driver's license is less than US$40 in most places, and insurance is about the same price as in Switzerland. Cars are not that expensive either. Instead of freezing my ass off on the weekend waiting for a damn train, I can jump in my car, with my heat on, with my IPod, and drive where I want. I only have to think about finding parking, if I don't want to pay to park in a lot. It is faster, more comfortable, more convenient.

A lot of Swiss people do drive, because the nation is mostly rural, but if you live in a city like Zurich or near one, you likely work there and do not drive, often do not have a car. How is the standard of living higher. In America even poor people have cars, although they have shitty ones. The ghettos are full of cars.

When I see this crap, I don't undertand them.

Also as a minority, something the white people who did this study, don't think about, is the "cost" of being a minority in a society. I have not see a nation in Europe yet where a visible minority (on average) lives better than the minorities here. Black Americans are wealthier, more educated, have more political power, and have more high status jobs per capita than any minorities in any nation in the West...especially any black minority.

That shit should be included, because that is critical. A nation might be good for some "white nordic guy" but horrible for a black man.


Fuck Newsweek, that rag is full of Transatlantic white East Coasters WASP/Jewish elite who long for America to be just like Europe, because they went their on vacation a few times, and think it is so idealistic, however they would never move there in a million years. LOL

If they actually spent some time there they would see quickly what I'm talking about and unless they are already independently wealthy, not think about moving there long term, let alone trying to make America like that. It is a reduction in our living standard, not an improvement.

Sorry.


Japan is not better either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/wo...ia/17japan.htm

Trust me, my ex-wife lives there now, and I talk to her a lot, she is not pleased with the economic situation, no one is, there are few full-time jobs, no one is having kids, everyone is depressed, suicide rate is up...how the fuck is that superior to America? GTFO