In a global ranking of 'best countries,' the United States drops to 7 (quality of life, living in)

[KuuKulgur]

Originally Posted by viribusunitis

Has a rich history:

USA: 3.4
Switzerland: 2.8

Lol

Nothing really happens/ed in Switzerland that is worth to be written about, those buggers have always remained neutral.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

I don't understand how Canada is ranked so much higher than the U.S. That doesn't make sense. The vast, vast majority of Canada is a cold wilderness with harsh weather that makes it almost uninhabitable for humans. I guess if you're into that. lol

I think Canada is a nice country. Toronto is cool. But overall, the U.S. is so much more interesting.

And Switzerland is such a small country. lol

You can disagree with the conclusions but "I don't understand how X is ranked" means you're pretty lazy given that the full methodology is in post #4 and the full results are on their website. The methodology is actually interesting.

They start with survey results about people's perceptions of a country, on a bunch of attributes. They aggregate these attributes in categories (adventure etc.) and then correlate category averages with wealth -- the categories most strongly associated with PPP-adjusted per capita GDP (Entrepreneurship, Citizenship, Quality of life) are weighted more heavily in the overall ranking. All the data is there and you could come up with any weighting scheme you like.

I'm not sure I understand your point about how uninhabitable most of Canada is. Who cares? (Almost) no one lives there -- what's the point about speculating about people's quality of life if they actually lived there? Alaska is almost 20% of the land area of the US, should it contribute to almost 20% of the ranking?

Category / Canada / US
Adventure / 4.1 / 3.1
Citizenship / 9.6 / 6.3 <- 2nd biggest impact on ranking
Cultural influence / 4.9 / 8.1
Entrepreneurship / 8.4 / 9.6 <- biggest impact on ranking
Heritage / 2.5 / 4.4
Movers / 3.1 / 4.1
Open for business / 8.5 / 5.3
Power / 4.2 / 10
Quality of life / 10 / 5.2 <- 3rd biggest impact on ranking

Canada scores higher than the US because people around the world perceive that Canada is more trustworthy (10 vs 2.5), cares more about the environment (8.4 vs 1.8) and human rights (10 vs 6.3), is safer (9.7 vs 2), more politically stable (10 vs 4), has a better public health system (9.6 vs 4.4) and more income equality (6.8 vs 0.9). The US does better on a bunch of dimensions as well but overall Canada does better on the things that the US News & World Report thinks are more important.

A lot of this stuff is obviously subjective but in a lot of ways, this is a ranking about progressive/liberal values because around the world, perceptions of those values at the country level are positively correlated with GDP per capita. I don't think it is a useless exercise.

[euro123]

Originally Posted by Greysholic

One of those typical bull**** rankings. It's unbelievable how this kind of crap gets published and people who write them get paid.

I agree, but those "statistics" are always made by anglophobic sources, nothing surprising hear about their bias. If it was russia it will look like 1. russia, 2. belarus, 3. serbia..if it was from france it will be 1. france, 2. canada, 3. belgium., etc.

[survivingearth]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

It should be MUCH LOWER. Those ranking are generally super Euro-centric.....always placing European and Canada and Australia way up there...and pretty much ignoring the rest of the world.

I'm an American who has been living in ASIA for the last twenty years....the quality of life, the technology, the conveniences, the safety, the comforts...they should definitely be up there much higher on those lists...which would bring the U.S. lower on the list...

Which Asian country and city?

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by survivingearth

Which Asian country and city?

Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, etc.

There are others that are more debateable depending on what critieria you want to use, but the three listed above should always be recognized up in the top 10.

[survivingearth]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, etc.

There are others that are more debateable depending on what critieria you want to use, but the three listed above should always be recognized up in the top 10.

I was wondering which city do you live because you said "I'm an American who has been living in ASIA for the last twenty years....the quality of life, the technology, the conveniences, the safety, the comforts...they should definitely be up there much higher on those lists...which would bring the U.S. lower on the list.."

[rosa surf]

Originally Posted by paull805

I would judge a country on safety, quality of life, wages, cohesion, happiness, education, health etc. So yeah there are many countries better than the States in them aspects.

The US has a horrible healthcare system. You have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to get very generic medical treatment.

I pay $200 per month for 2 people ( total cost is actually $500). Each time I want to see a doctor, I have to pay an extra $25. The visit usually lasts 10-15 minutes max, and the end result is usually a half-assed diagnosis and a prescription for medication. Many times I feel like I should have saved my $25 and self-diagnosed.

[Ariete]

Has great food:

Japan
4.7
Sweden
0.5

So surströmming is crap, but when you insert some seaweed it becomes great?

Culturally accessible:

Japan
4.7
Denmark
4.8

Ok, so one of the most proficient English speakers in a easily accessable location and culture with a laid-back populace vs a remote island nation with one of the most distinct cultures on the planet, where even handing business card is a carefully orchestrated ceremony?

Strong international alliances:

Norway
3.4
Finland
2.1

Ok then. A country not in the EU or Eurozone has more international alliances. It can't be only because of NATO, because Sweden scored even higher than Norway.

Seems the monkey throwing darts and the good old rabbit-in-the-hat methods have been used.

[lookyhere]

Originally Posted by Ariete

Has great food:

Japan
4.7
Sweden
0.5

So surströmming is crap, but when you insert some seaweed it becomes great?

Culturally accessible:

Japan
4.7
Denmark
4.8

Ok, so one of the most proficient English speakers in a easily accessable location and culture with a laid-back populace vs a remote island nation with one of the most distinct cultures on the planet, where even handing business card is a carefully orchestrated ceremony?

Strong international alliances:

Norway
3.4
Finland
2.1

Ok then. A country not in the EU or Eurozone has more international alliances. It can't be only because of NATO, because Sweden scored even higher than Norway.

Seems the monkey throwing darts and the good old rabbit-in-the-hat methods have been used.

Agreed.
These lists and surveys are sponsored by some commercial interests. I suppose there's a grain of truth in their rankings but unfortunately shouldn't really shape anyone's views of the countries included.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by survivingearth

I was wondering which city do you live because you said "I'm an American who has been living in ASIA for the last twenty years....the quality of life, the technology, the conveniences, the safety, the comforts...they should definitely be up there much higher on those lists...which would bring the U.S. lower on the list.."

I live in Macau, and previous to Macau, I was living in Japan and South Korea.

I go back to the U.S. sometimes, but I'm ashamed to tell students of how poor the public transportation is - i.e. non-existent throughout most of the U.S., and most Americans are adamantly against it.

I also remember having tiny little cellphones with tons of features in SOuth Korea in the 1990s,and then going back to the U.S. in the 1990s and people were anti-cellphone at that time, or had a huge monster phone for 'roadside security' issues, or had super crazy cellphone plans that financially exploited the hell of people who did get cellphones back at that time. My plan was like $10 unlimited in Korea, and I went back to live in the U.S. for awhile in the 1990s and had some rip-off Sprint plan that tried to get $300 in a month because potential employers called me, when I was trying so hard to not use it at all, because I knew the u.s. system was so exploitative with things like that. But since it was relatively new in the U.S., they wanted to financially exploit the hell out of anyone who did get a cellphone.

I also remember back in the 1990s when throughout the world, the internet was exploding with internet cafes in every niche and cranny. South Korea already had broadband and was known as a gamer capital of the world, and you couldn't WALK for more than 10 minutes without seeing a half dozen internet cafes all within close proximity. Then I'd go back to the U.S., and people were trying some AOL dial-up or some other crazy thing.....then you'd try to find an internet cafe, and someone referred you to some major city with $5/hour, or sometimes even $5/5 minutes internet cafe with coffee or some crazy stuff. But you'd find only one in all of New York City, and it was at Times Square....and good luck to you, unless you knew the Korean neighborhood in New York City, and could read Korean signs, so you could find the $1/hour at ten times the speed.

Trains. Living in Japan/Korea, I could get on fast-speed trains....the fastest at the world at that time (although I think much of the world outside of the u.s. has built super fast trains as well). But you'd be on some train in Japan or Korea and see something that says 300kmh/hour..and you knew you'd get from A to B faster than some planes (granted the distances are shorter to cross Korea or Japan). But, meanwhile even in 2017, people in the U.S. think that a high-speed train between even NYC and DC is a strange futuristic thought.

Ahmm...too many things to mention. Japan builds buildings without noise...they can construct buildings that don't make noise. Fantastic if you live near that.

Just too many things....when I go back to the U.S., I just feel like people are arguing over stupid things all the time...i.e we can't afford trains....Japan cars are better because (I don't even know why).....

I don't know, I just feel like I'm going back 40 years in time, whenever I go back to the States. It also doesn't help that the U.S. has basically only built more of the obsolete shopping malls and suburban tract malls and housing....I go back to where I grew up, and that's the only new things that I see. Whereas when you live in Asia, you just always see entire cities and neighhorhoods change shapes on a regular basis....from great to really great. U.S. cities seems to go to somewhat acceptable to dilipitated or dangerous.

Anyways, my experiences....as an American who has lived in Japan, Korea, and Macau for over 20 years. I'm sure someone who has never left America will strongly argue against me though.