Which is the best country to live in?

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Which is the best country to live in?
or
Which citizenship is the best one?

I'm wondering which country is the best one to live in and which citizenship is the most desirable? Please abstact away from where your family and your friends live.
Which country offers the most for its citizens, where is the economy stable, where to find good jobs, are the people nice (which is difficult to say without regarding to particular people you know ;)), what about taxes, prices of land and houses, lease prices for flats, and so on ...
Another aspect is the language of the country – would it be useful to have it as your native language? How many native speakers are there around the world and do many people learn it as a foreign language?

I'm hoping for a lot of interesting answers and opinions! :)

(I wasn't sure whether to post this thread in "General Off-Topic Chat" or here, but I hope I chose the right subforum)
 
I dont think there is one really :p all have pro's and con's, but just to go along i'd say somewhere in the West, most likely Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium or Holland, due to the great social laws.
 
I guess it depends what you want out of life.

But I think it was Norway who was awarded Highest Human Development index recently.
 
Probably something like Sweden or Norway. But not too shabby here either.
 
The great Republic of Korea!


Hard to get citizenship, though.
 
Probably Norway or Iceland. Sweden's pretty neat as well.
 
Gray Fox said:
Any Scandinavian country.
Click to expand...

Agreed - Switzerland is meant to be nice. My parents are geophysicists and spend half of the year working abroad. They're pretty much lived everywhere, and are planning on retiring in Switzerland as 'it's the cleanest and most beautiful place' they've seen. Public transport arrives on time, the food is good, people are friendly, education and other public services are excellent ...
For the last year they've been in Algeria - sounds like a complete dump :/
 
Meh. Whats so great about Scandinavian countries? Socialism rampant, 'Welfare' destroying economy and jobs, no Mcdonalds, ect.
 
Warbie said:
Agreed - Switzerland is meant to be nice. My parents are geophysicists and spend half of the year working abroad. They're pretty much lived everywhere, and are planning on retiring in Switzerland as 'it's the cleanest and most beautiful place' they've seen. Public transport arrives on time, the food is good, people are friendly, education and other public services are excellent ...
For the last year they've been in Algeria - sounds like a complete dump :/
Click to expand...


Switzerland isnt a Scandinavian country.

But, yeah. Scandinavia would be nice for me too... not that I have to move very far though. Finland might be an alternative for me... if I can learn the language. Many finnish people know Swedish (they learn it at school... right?), but I want to speak their native language if I lived there.
 
15357 said:
Meh. Whats so great about Scandinavian countries? Socialism rampant, 'Welfare' destroying economy and jobs, no Mcdonalds, ect.
Click to expand...

Welfare isn't destroying ecomony and jobs, it helps to produce them. Welfare is about protecting and helping the weak in society; the young, the old and the sick and about support the unemployed long enough for them to get on the right track.

Not all left-wing countries are like North Korea, numbers.

(We have more than enough of McDonals, BTW, but I suppose that was a joke?)
 
Taxman said:
Welfare isn't destroying ecomony and jobs, it helps to produce them. Welfare is about protecting and helping the weak in society; the young, the old and the sick and about support the unemployed long enough for them to get on the right track.

Not all left-wing countries are like North Korea, numbers.

(We have more than enough of McDonals, BTW, but I suppose that was a joke?)
Click to expand...


Perhaps, but still: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

A lot of teh countries that prioritize on welfare aren't on the top ten list...


And that was a joke. :p
 
15357 said:
Perhaps, but still: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

A lot of teh countries that prioritize on welfare aren't on the top ten list...


And that was a joke. :p
Click to expand...


UK, Germany, France, Canada are in the top 10, to name a few.

And you're looking at the wrong list, a better way to measure the economy is per capita.

This is the list you want:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

Oh wow, at least 8 of the top 10 on that list are Welfare states.
 
UK, Germany, France, Canada concentrate on welfare?

Canada, ok, but the others, I'm not so sure.


Anyway, meh. GDP > GDP per capita, as it depends on population.
 
YOUR FACE!

Actually, Scandinavia would be pretty cool. The Netherlands is supposed to be awesome. England is exciting, and has Shakespeare and Stonehenge and stuff like that. Personally, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else than Great Britain, but that's a personal thing because I'm in love with the history, literature, culture and self-parody of the place.

15357 said:
Meh. Whats so great about Scandinavian countries? Socialism rampant, 'Welfare' destroying economy and jobs, no Mcdonalds, ect.
Click to expand...
You know why they haven't got a high GDP? They don't need to. They're not big producer countries. They're small countries where, to my knowledge, almost everybody is pretty well-off and there is little in the way of social strife.

Germany has a very very extensive welfare state, although it's causing a few problems afaik.
 
15357 said:
The great Republic of Korea!


Hard to get citizenship, though.
Click to expand...


does anyone actually emmigrate to korea? would anyone want to? sounds like it's not welcoming to foreigners
 
CptStern said:
does anyone actually emmigrate to korea? would anyone want to? sounds like it's not welcoming to foreigners
Click to expand...

Loads, actually. Most western people (like people from Canada, US, and other english speakers) go to Metro areas where they can teach English without much training, others are US military personnel stationed here, ect. But only a fifth stay permanently.

Others are mostly SE Asia. Workers and laborors looking for better pay and stuff.
 
As has been said, pretty much any Scandinavian country is good.

Warbie mentioned Switzerland, and as somebody who lived there for eight years, I'd agree. It's clean, it's low on crime, it takes care of those less well off, little red tape, public transportation can take you practically anywhere, et cetera...
Pretty good life. I certainly preferred it to my current country of residence. But it can be expensive. There's also been a developing xenophobia in some parts due to the immigration (gets a lot of Albanians, Turks, and so on).
 
I want to move to sweden...if only I spoke swedish.

EDIT: I just watched a documentary on North Korea, and I've changed my opinion about Number's SK being just as bad, not much could be as bad as living in North Korea...it was like flipping 1984, while when they went to South Korea things looked much better.
 
15357 said:
Loads, actually. Most western people (like people from Canada, US, and other english speakers) go to Metro areas where they can teach English without much training, others are US military personnel stationed here, ect. But only a fifth stay permanently.

Others are mostly SE Asia. Workers and laborors looking for better pay and stuff.
Click to expand...


so the only non asian immigrants are either military or teachers
 
How can I know which country is best to live in if I've only lived in one for my life? I like to have "hands on experience" before I judge something to be quality or not.
 
New Zealand is amazing. beautiful, relatively cheap, safe, and nice and quiet. best place to raise a family i think, esp if you stay out of auckland, which is shit. ive also heard places like sweden are very expensive places to live.(true?)
 
Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Canada. I wouldnt mind living in Japan either, just for the sheer lunacy of its culture.

I still like the UK, despite its sometimes astounding levels of shittiness.
 
Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg (sp?), and New Zealand are my favorites.
 
I'm gonna start my own country of awesomeness.

Tr0n, you can be my ambassador.
 
Within that country of awesomeness will be a castle of awesome. A castle like no other.
 
I quite like The United Kingdom Of Great Britan And Northern Ireland (Union Flags unfurl and Land of Hope and Glory plays in the background) for the moment. However, if the govenment continues on its policy of attempting to ban everything, I may well leave.
 
Whatever country you are happy in is the best one. One of my good friends moved to Ethopia and he loves it there.
 
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