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These seems to be the favorite countries to live whenever i talk to people. Do you agree?
Pretty funny that you left out Canada when it is constantly ranked near the top of almost all the lists I have ever seen for the best countries to live in. Our cities also rank near or at the top of many lists as well.
The USA is almost never near the top of any of those lists by the way!
All of this being said, the answer to this question is: depends. There is no perfect country. Most countries have good and bad points, and what is good for some may not be good for others.
I agree 100%.
One thing that some people forget is how supposed rich countries are rich thanks to resources. I mean California, Texas (America) or Canada and Australia, Norway have plenty of valuable resources to make money from (oil, gold, diamonds...) while some of my favorites (Japan, Korea, Israel, Monaco) have started from nothing. It's easy to be rich when there are diamonds/oil in your backyard, but what does this say about the "smartness" of the people living there? Nothing.
Excuse me? Why do you pass conveniently through information/data posted in this thread?
"So does Spain" are you serious? Portugal's average wage is 80-90% lower than Spain's one, being almost half.
Spanish average is slightly lower than the average of Western Europe (without counting microstates just as Monaco, Luxembourg, etc. If not, even Germany would have a low wage compared to those) but the Portuguese one is under half of the average.
I've been to Portugal and the prices are not even by far 50% lower than in Spain yet their wages are almost half. In restaurants I didn't see more than a 20-30% of difference and in normal groceries the difference was close to that too. Gasoline and Diesel is even more expensive in Portugal, the only fair difference compared to prices is the price of their phone/internet companies compared to the Spanish ones, in Spain you pay 40€ for the Internet which you get in Portugal for 20-25€, but this is amongst the least important things.
Oh dear, Spain is the 3rd country in the world and 2nd in Europe in UNESCO heritage sites, just surpassed by China and Italy. Civil unrests in Spain?!? Oh dear, seems that you know from 0 to nothing about civil unrests in Europe. Portugal has more, while France, UK or Germany have way more than Spain does.
Just like I said before, from Europe the best countries to live are: France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Netherlands (in this order). Portugal needs a lot of improvement to be in that list, starting with public infrastructure such as health care, as many Portuguese public hospitals have less specialists than they need, as the majority of new graduates (nurses and doctors) flee to other European countries, last year thousands of young doctors made a manifestation because they started with a wage of 500-600€ per month!!! For God's sake, in Spain new doctors earn about 3.000€ per month and nurses with university degrees earn about 2.000€, and that's when they start, in some years they double (or more) that wage...
Junter, if you're going to transmit info, at least transmit true information. Not made up crap.
Some things are slightly cheaper in Spain others are not. Rents and other services are way more expensive in Spain than in Portugal.
LOL. Civil Unrests? What kind of Linguistic or ethnic divisions does Portugal has? Unlike Spain (as the whole world saw last month) which has huge divisions and unrest within their country. Not to mention how Spain has had several terrorist attacks and Portugal none.
Wages are low but nurses (not doctors as they earn WAY MORE than 500 euros) are not going to Spain. They are going to the UK, Germany or Switzerland. Rich countries with high wages and low unemployment unlike Spain or Portugal.
You're ultranationalism and schadenfreude is really annoying and boring everyone else. Yes Portuguese people are poorer and most people are fine.
She was starving? I do not think an Engineer in Italy would have those low conditions. It is strange to hear but I will believe you.
In Milan we do not see it as a poor city. Many of my friends are finance professionals or work in fashion. This is a powerhouse in Europe.
Also remember other expenses. I have talked with Americans who are struggling with healthcare, bills, property taxes and other issues. These are professionals too. I lived in Los Angeles. Life in the USA is not always comfortable even if you have skills.
Salary is not the only important thing.
Unless you are very rich in the USA, Europe is better and less stressful. I am glad I do not live in the USA anymore.
Life is no picnic anywhere and I know we have our problems and there was a point in my life where I would have preferred the Euro model and I agree there are pros to it but I know for me I prefer the american model. I own a condo in Marbella, Spain and do enjoy it there but I would hate, hate, hate to try to make a living there in Spain or Italy....as long as you're happy there, congrats, it's not for me other than for vacations.
When I look at Milan's streets, I see more people who dress good than any USA city. Dressing good is more than nice clothing. It is also about tailoring, sizing and fit.
I have seen people in the USA who dress good in cities but it is much rarer than what I see in Europe. Overall the USA does not rank high for me regarding stylish people.
Your location is Cannes. You should know this.
The stylishness of residents seems to me the most trivial and superficial of reasons to prefer one country over another. I live in an affluent area of the US and have a well above average income, but I could not care less about fashion. To me it would be misery to have to worry about either looking fashionable or being looked down upon, every time I set foot outside the door; I just couldn't live like that If people are clean and covered, why should anyone else care whether they are stylish or not.
One reason I like living in the US is that there is less pressure to conform to a certain strict societal standard than in many other countries.
Pretty funny that you left out Canada when it is constantly ranked near the top of almost all the lists I have ever seen for the best countries to live in. Our cities also rank near or at the top of many lists as well.
The USA is almost never near the top of any of those lists by the way!
Why is it "funny"? Maybe he doesn't like cold places. A lot of people don't like places where you have four months of sub-zero temperature.
Those "lists" are almost meaningless. It only shows that those experts strongly prefer English and German spoken countries. I fail to see how a boring city like Calgary with dreadful weather, a dead downtown and bad transit can be one of the top 5 livable cities in the entire world. I can name 20 that are way better.
I disagree with you about conformity. I think the USA is very socially conservative in many ways. Much more than most of Europe. I prefer the Dutch and Danish mentality.
The US has much less homogeneity than any European country. There is less pressure to conform. Depending on the country, this extends all the way from not sneering at people wearing sneakers on the street, to not pressuring working mothers to quit their jobs.
For example, my German sister-in-law experienced a lot of pressure not to return to work full-time when she had kids. She had to give up the idea as the society did not support her. Daycare/kindergarten was "free," sure, but it closed in the early afternoon. So mothers could only work part-time, in the mornings. And daycare was also entirely closed during the month of August. For several years sister-in-law's parents came over every summer and spent August watching the children, as she could not take the whole month off and had no other option for child care during that time.
This would never happen in the US. The idea that a daycare could shut down for an entire month while all the staff went on vacation would be unthinkable.
I'm sure other European countries are more progressive in this regard than Germany. But it is certainly silly to compare "Europe" to the US, as though every European country is the same.
USA is more liberal in some ways than Europe, and more conservative in others. Sexually US is really liberal. Tons of people putting out on the first date, having FWB, etc
Why is it "funny"? Maybe he doesn't like cold places. A lot of people don't like places where you have four months of sub-zero temperature.
Those "lists" are almost meaningless. It only shows that those experts strongly prefer English and German spoken countries. I fail to see how a boring city like Calgary with dreadful weather, a dead downtown and bad transit can be one of the top 5 livable cities in the entire world. I can name 20 that are way better.
It's irrelevant if you like all of those lists or not, it doesn't change the fact that Canada is seen as one of the best countries in the world to live in, over and over and over again!
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