Better Countries?

[livingdeb]

One of my Facebook friends linked to America - The Grim Truth, which says that Americans have the worst quality of life in the developed world by far. I'm not sure I believe that, but some of the points were interesting:

* Health care - The US is only country in the developed world without a single-payer health-care system; which means super sick people generally have financial worries as well as health worries.

* Health - Industry works hard to prevent effective food regulation and inspection; high corn syrup consumption makes type 2 diabetes common, we're drug happy, and we don't get many vacation days compared to other developed countries.

* Career - Your employer will "play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you." And we tend to be deep in debt.

* Freedom - "America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass. ... Right now, the government is building fences and walls along its northern and southern borders. Right now, the government is working on a national ID system (soon to be fitted with biometric features). Right now, the government is building a surveillance state so extensive that they will be able to follow your every move, online, in the street and across borders."

* Hope for change - the people are propagandized, mass media spouts corporate propaganda, politicians have actually legalized some forms of corruption.

The author recommends leaving. Out of curiosity I googled some top-ten sites to get ideas. I'd like a place that's got less corruption and more equality. I love college towns best, so I looked up education. And I really don't want to deal with a strongly religious culture. Here are the results (numbers show ranking on the indicated list).

C = ten least corrupt (per https://themysteriousworld.com/10-least-corrupt-countries-in-the-world/)
E = top eleven most educated (per http://nordic.businessinsider.com/wef-global-competitiveness-report-most-educated-countries-in-the-world-2016-10/)
R = Least religious (per https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-03-25/the-10-least-religious-countries-ranked-by-perception)
= = top eleven most equal (per http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-most-equal-countries-in-the-world-2011-10?op=1/#-germany-gini-270-1)

Australia - E9, R1
Austria - R10, =8
Belgium - E5
Canada - C10, R8
Czech Republic - =4
Denmark - C1, E6, R7
Finland - C3, E2, =10
France - R9
Germany - R3, =11
Hungary - =2
Iceland - E11
Kazakhstan - =9
Luxemburg - C9, R6, =6
Malta - =5
Netherlands - C8, E3, R4
New Zealand - C2, E10, R5
Norway - C5, E7, =3
Singapore - C7, E1
Slovakia - =7
Sweden - C4, R2, =1
Switzerland - C6, E4
United States - E8

No country appeared on all four lists. Six are on three lists:
Denmark, Finland, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway

The equality list is probably the least important to me, these were on all three other lists:
Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand

I am not surprised to see the Netherlands and Norway appearing on multiple lists; I am surprised to see Luxemburg. I'm surprised to see the US on only one of these lists and Japan on zero of them.

Other things that are important to me are warm weather, good friends, and affordability.

What are your priorities?

Comments

[texpenguin]

Affordability knocks out all three of your remaining countries! Plus, it's pretty hard to get through the legal stuff to move to any of them. As an adult, you generally have to have a work skill that is hard to find locally and be sponsored in by a company. I would imagine post-retirement, unless you somehow managed to set something up ages ago (maybe purchased property or something?), It's probably nigh on impossible to move to another first world country.

[livingdeb]

Affordability knocks out all six! (Yes, I did have to research Luxembourg. Wow, they were so annoyed with Germans and French fighting each other over their own (neutral) territory that they ended up doing things that led to the formation of the European Union. They remind me of a tiny Switzerland with no mountains.)

Some decent second-world countries let you in without a job (and don't want you taking their jobs) if you have enough money, so if I were actually emigrating, I'd probably have to look there. I have enough money for some of the ones with lower requirements.

Plus a lot of people live in other countries either illegally or on a temporary basis, having to cross the border every so often to re-start the clock.