Quote:
Originally Posted by belmont22
What do you think? Which country offers a better quality of life?
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You are judging Canada by a few bad experiences. I have visited Canada for over 40 years, off and on, since my sister married a Canadian (he is now a dual citizen). The U.S. is more individualistic, and cares about some of its people (to do more is "socialism"), while Canada cares for all of its people, collectively. IMHO, the U.S. was once what Canada is now, temperamentally. I find Canadians to be friendly, or at least indifferent to Americans. They are not haters, collectively.
It is true that Canada has to deal with drugs and poverty, but it has far less violence and racism. Students from other countries are starting to avoid U.S. universities for the latter reasons, especially if they are from Africa and the Caribbean.
The same things you say about the diversity between American States also apply to Canada. Halifax is different from Toronto, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Vancouver, and Ottawa. I have been to all of these places, and each has a different vibe.
IMHO, Canada is on the rise, while the U.S. is in decline. If you look at all of the quality of life indicators, Canada is near the top, while the U.S. is middle of the pack or lower.
This is a where to be born index from an
Economist Intelligence Unit study on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-born_Index
They used the following independent variables for 2006:
Material well-being as measured by GDP per capita (in $, at 2006 constant PPPS)
Life expectancy at birth
The quality of family life based primarily on divorce rates
The state of political freedoms
Job security (measured by the unemployment rate)
Climate (measured by two variables: the average deviation of minimum and maximum monthly temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius; and the number of months in the year with less than 30mm rainfall)
Personal physical security ratings (based primarily on recorded homicide rates and ratings for risk from crime and terrorism)
Quality of community life (based on membership in social organisations)
Governance (measured by ratings for corruption)
Gender equality (measured by the share of seats in parliament held by women)
Here are the top 20:
Rank Country Score
(out of 10)
1 Switzerland 8.22
2 Australia 8.18
3 Norway 8.09
4 Sweden 8.02
5 Denmark 8.01
6 Singapore 8.00
7 New Zealand 7.95
8 Netherlands 7.94
9 Canada 7.81
10 Hong Kong 7.80
11 Finland 7.76
12 Ireland 7.74
13 Austria 7.73
14 Italy 7.67
15 Belgium 7.51
16 Germany 7.38
16 United States 7.38
18 United Arab Emirates 7.33
19 South Korea 7.25
20 Israel 7.23
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