What country would you live in if you could?

[SensibleNick]

Re: leaving a sinking ship and moving to Sweden

Wow, that's bold. A lot of people talked about leaving around then , you did it.
Dave.

I have a feeling that you're assuming I started off in the USA. Had that been the case I'd have probably done the same, but as it is I hopped off the UK.

Still... I tend to put my money where my mouth is, Walk the walk ... or whatever the local phrase for "never making an empty threat" is.

I get into discussions about "which country is best" etc quite regularly, and find that I get routinely accused of being jealous over US citizens. While this is absolutely not the case, I do envy the US geography. You guys have an awesome spread of different landscapes and topography. you practically span ice-caps to ever-glades, and desserts to rocky mountain ranges. It really is stunning. I rather like the health system here though, the 6 weeks of holiday per year, the 16 months of paid parental leave, the government subsidised sick-leave and so on... So I think I'll stay. :thumbsup:

OK, I see I'm not getting through to some. If an earth quake hit your country and it sunk and you were forced to have to go to another country where on this planet would you and your family including your dog go? If you stay where you are you will drown in salt water.

Norway... It's a more expensive version of Sweden with equally dubious culinary habits, but as I'm an avid rock-climber and I love the idiotic geography that place has, I'd nip next door to Norway.

I hear that both NZ and Australia are welcoming "professionals" in most trades.... Emigrating is said to be really easy... As of yesterday we've officially had snow on the ground for 3 months...

***********

_RaT_ ... Are we to assume that you're on a piece of low-lying coastline then? If sea-levels rise, are you going to have to take up oyster farming?

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

I will now remove my tongue from my cheek, from whence I had it firmly planted, when I recommended Cuba as a destination.
Having been lucky to be able to go to Europe a number of times, there are a lot of nice places, but to live?
Probably S. Switzerland(Lugano?) Or one of the prettiest settings I have ever seen is Annecy France, about 20 miles south of Geneva Switz.
But every time I come back , I am still awed by this country.
About how beautiful the snow covered mountains are in the distance, or the desert in spring, when all the wildflowers blossom, or the beach with all the surfers and cute girls!
Anyway bottom line for me is, rest of world, nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there
Now if we could only get rid of the all the goofs running this state,it pretty much would be paradise.

 

[_RaT_]

I will now remove my tongue from my cheek, from whence I had it firmly planted, when I recommended Cuba as a destination.
Having been lucky to be able to go to Europe a number of times, there are a lot of nice places, but to live?
Probably S. Switzerland(Lugano?) Or one of the prettiest settings I have ever seen is Annecy France, about 20 miles south of Geneva Switz.
But every time I come back , I am still awed by this country.
About how beautiful the snow covered mountains are in the distance, or the desert in spring, when all the wildflowers blossom, or the beach with all the surfers and cute girls!
Anyway bottom line for me is, rest of world, nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there
Now if we could only get rid of the all the goofs running this state,it pretty much would be paradise.

R:laughing:T

 

[dave1949]

I have a feeling that you're assuming I started off in the USA. Had that been the case I'd have probably done the same, but as it is I hopped off the UK.

Still... I tend to put my money where my mouth is, Walk the walk ... or whatever the local phrase for "never making an empty threat" is.

Mea Culpa. I did assume that. I don't know where the 'walk the walk - talk' thing started. I've always found it to be rather lacking as an idiom.

Countries are hard to say better-worse. Most seem to have good and bad points. Sweden has blondes, USA has FallbrookFarmer, stuff like that :laughing: I like the premise, you get one turn on the merry-go-round, may as well enjoy it.
Dave.

 

[SensibleNick]

Sweden has blondes, USA has FallbrookFarmer, stuff like that :laughing: I like the premise, you get one turn on the merry-go-round, may as well enjoy it.
Dave.

America also has "Everythingattachments.com" .... you win!

 

[reb]

Visited both New Zealand and Australia about 25 years ago with the thought of possibly emigrating. Both are great countries, but we decided that we liked the US of A better. As for Texas, I lived there for about a year and was happy to leave. Not my cup of tea. Canada is attractive. but I don't know of a better place to be than where I am, tho I could be convinced to go elsewhere, for reasons we can't discuss here.

 

[inveresk]

Mercer's quality of living survey (cities);
World's most livable cities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland . . . .

UN Human Development Index
List of countries by Human Development Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norway, Australia, Iceland (?), Canada . . . . .

International living quality of life index
Quality of Life Index 2009
France, Switzerland, USA, Luxembourg . . . .

Truth is if we all struck gold by being born and growing up in first world countries. They're great places to earn a living and bring up a family. The criteria changes when I look at where I might want to retire to though. On my shopping list is a cheaper cost of living, good health care, low crime and a great climate.

 

[dmccarty]

I "could" live in quite a few places if we sold our land and houses and went "mobile" to quote a song from a group that wanted to die before they grew old. And half of them sorta did.

Since our house is quite a distance from the ocean and 500 feet above sea level if we get flooded by sea water I don't think there really will be a place left for us to go. I suppose we could pack the kids and gear in the canoe while the wife and I towed them in the kayaks but I hope the flood does not last 40 days and 40 nights.

I already live in the best country on earth. My people came here for very good reasons.

If I HAD to leave the US,Switzerland seems to be a good place. They seem to value freedom, know how to keep it, and have managed to keep themselves free from the tyrants over quite a few centuries.

Later,
Dan

 

[SensibleNick]

It'd have to be a modern country that doesn't insist on using the archaic imperial measurement system...

So that rules out 3 countries...

http://www.designverb.com/wp-content/images/2007/06/Metric_system.jpg

 

[SensibleNick]

If I HAD to leave the US,Switzerland seems to be a good place. They seem to value freedom, know how to keep it, and have managed to keep themselves free from the tyrants over quite a few centuries.

There seems to be a lot of favour for Switzerland...

Well, there's mostly rock there, and the lack of coastline would really bug me after a while.
On a more interesting side, they also have compulsory military training for men, and each and every man has a rifle and ammo at home. Try invading a country where every bloke is well armed and trained to work together.... it's just asking for trouble.

My missus has worked there and says that the tax system is really odd, and seemingly very unfair. Local areas vote on what they're happy to pay tax for, and it really shows. Some areas people decide to pay as little as possible. There's poor roads etc to show for it.... She says she won't ever go back there.
Consider this as well... Swiss-German, French, Italian and a Romanian language...? There's four main languages over there... take your pick