Whats a good country to live in?

I live in the U.S.A. I have moved several times in the past few years. I just don't seem to like any place I move to and that got me to thinking a little bit. I was wondering about other countries and what are some nice country to live in (NOTE: not the U.S. This is not a political question, and my reasons have nothing to do with politics! I'm just curious.)

After living in various places in Asia for nearly a decade, and traveling extensively as part of my job, I seriously questioned returning to the US, where I am a citizen by birth. Many of the reasons are political, so I won't discuss here, but when it comes to comfortable living with good-hearted people and a good climate and away from the insanity of most of the world, I seriously considered moving to NZ. It is a bit of a challenge to qualify for permanent residency though, and at my age, I'd have to buy my way in, but they have a scoring system and you can figure out pretty fast if you in the ballpark. If you have a good education and have many years of work life left, they'll rank you high. They want talent.

In the end, mainly due to proximity to family, I returned to the US and I'm kind of OK with it. On the other hand, I'm going to spend the next 15 months crusiing on my yacht outside US waters, so I guess I'm not fully adjusted. My problems are mainly due the lack of worldly knowledge and broad perspective in America, at least as compared to the people I lived around for the last ten years.

Also, the amount of personal energy and time it takes to provide the necessities of life is among the highest in the world in the US. It takes a lot more work (add commiting hours plus work hours plus household maintenance hours plus hours to pay for health care plus hours to prepare for a good retirement) to live in America as compared to Asia or NZ and Australia or most of Europe. I equate the amount of hours requried before you get to enjoy true leisure hours as the standard of living (a different metric than the official studies which tend to incorrectly place the US high in 'standard of living' ). Once you get past that obvious myth, you can do a lot better in dozens of countries, at least based on my experiences. You just have to decide to do it.

Beyond that, it really depends on the climate you like and what the immigration requirements are versus your resume to decide where to go.

On the other hand, if you are entrpeneural and are planning to create your own business, you can't beat the US. It's the easiest place to set up a business and to find people who are willing to kill themselves and blow away their personal life for the chance at weath via stock options. Which equates to good employees. So, hands down, I'd start a high tech business in the US as opposed to any other country.

In the end, depends what you are going to do, I guess. If you plan to work for someone else and still have a wonderful, fullfilling personal life, I'd pick NZ.

Shadar

I guess if you were to pick a good place based on climate, most of the time, it's a tropical climate here in southeast Texas. But you said no U.S. so why not move to our neighbor to the south, Estados Unidos de Mexico. The climate there is great, especially if you live on a coastal city like, e.g, Los Cabos, Acapulco, and Veracruz spring to mind instantly.

Where have you lived, and why don't you like it? I think that knowing what you like or don't like about certain places would get to the heart of where would best suit you.

Is it the climate? The people? Big cities? Rural areas? Culture? Coastal living? Natural disasters?

YAGS

Well it's really just a thought right now. Chances are I wouldn't move out of the U.S and leave my family and friends, but you never know whats out their till you look.

The reality of my current situation is I am going nowhere anytime soon. But I can start looking and seeing if there are feasible options out their for me, and then seeing what I need to do and how to go about doing it If I decide too. I guess I could list a big list of limiting factors but I don't want to worry about limits right now.

As for what I'm looking for right now I just want to here it all. This is just the very beginning of my thought, I 'm taking my first step of thinking about something as drastic (for me) as moving out of the United States. I only speak English, so that is probably go limit me a bit, but I still just want to know other peoples opinions too.

Well I can say that the following countries are off my list.

1. Afghanistan
2. Uzbekistan
3. Iraq

If I had to live in the Middle East I wouldn't mind Qatar or Kuwait for a short time. Visited Columbia recently on business and found it surprisingly modern and an excellent climate. I was in Bogota. So many cops and military however that it felt like martial law was in effect. At least I felt very safe.

As Sarge mentioned, there are some really sh*t places, but if you've got some decent skills and a good education, you should give NZ or Australia a try, even South East asia is interesting. Don't need anything but English there.

It's all a matter of what you do and your skills as to whether you can get in.

Shadar

What's wrong with Uzbekistan? Oh, yeah. The neighbors (me?).

I'm no jet-setter. But I have lived West Coast USA: all of it. Seattle used to be the hip joint, but it's been flooded with Californians over the last 30 years and has lost its emerald sheen. LA is just a tasteless sprawl of dust and smog--the one place I'll never return to. Bay Area is the place for you if you like plenty of diverse company--and you're insane. Portland's inherited Seatlle's old "backwoods big city" thing lately, but that'll fade in a decade or so. There's still plenty of good West Coast backwoods out there if unabombing's your thing, easy roll-down-the-hill city access. For all the crowds West Coast never ceases to amaze me with all the immense open spaces that are still there. We've barely populated the edges of the place.

But honestly, I live in the USA for two reasons. I gets me a good cheap ejimucation here (no have to have 4.0 an learn march in rank for skool), and here only place what let me tinker with rokets that go fzzzz high to moon. Ugh.

:wink:

Places I no wanna live: anywhere they let Muslims loose with that wacko-offa-yer-limbs law of theirs. Of the 100 names of "God" in the Qu'ran, only one of them is 'he who loves'--and that's the only mention of the word 'love' in the whole book! Madness I tell ya. I want no part of Alah nor any 'god/dess' that brings an external peace through violence and intimidation--unless she's dressed in something divinely revealing and can bench press a continent.

More places I no wanna live: farmland, jungle, swamp, desert, iceflow, farmland, suburbs. Rainforests are cool and I love a good Mediterainian climate. Where I'm at I have a 6-mile commute all surface streets, and I live practically next door to any store I'll ever need. I'm down with Shadar on this one: commutes suck. I own two cars: both of them recreationally.

Places I wouldn't mind living: a 20-minute trainride from hardcore urban, any Pacific Rim city except LA. I think traveling is a waste of money. Move to a big city and let the world come to you. We're all stuck on the same little wet dirt-clod of a planet after all. Enjoy the inevitable circulation. All the big cities are pretty much the same now anyway.

There's a certain volty buzz you get in a big city, and I'm addicted to it. Certain cities are higher voltage than others. Bay Area's definately the high voltage point West Coast USA.

Besides, have you read Revalation? The new thing on the next-life horizon in THAT book is an glass-paved urban center 1000 miles wide and 1000 miles tall! ZAP! Best learn to use a GPS. You're going to need it. I like THAT Book better. Its a sci-fi love letter, cover-to-cover.

And yeah, Yanks get a bad rap overseas and we do elect some very doped leaders. That's because the rest of us are to busy having fun to want to fuss with the beurocracy. Our leaders don't represent, and we all know it. No country's leaders really do represent. Politics and diplomacy are just one more sporting game we all like to gather around and throw popcorn at our TVs over. People are people the world over. We all basically get along pretty good any mix of one-on-one and in small groups. Like any sport there are fanatics who get upset about one team's winning or loosing, but like any pro sport--none of it really matters anymore down here in the streets.

One place I'd LOVE to live: underwater. People can basically fly underwater. Where's the big underwater cities we were promised! Isn't this the future?

Sigh.
Peace on, citizens. Enjoy the whirlygig ride.

Wuv,
-WP.

What I've learnt travelling and living abroad is that there are not many places on Earth where you can't have a great life if you've plenty of money and very, very few places where you can have a great life if you don't.

Everywhere has its problems. It just depends which problems you can live with and which you can't. Me, I'm happy where I am. So that means I'm fine with shit weather, expensive public transport and overpriced housing in exchange for proper working laws, social justice, free healthcare and gun-free living. We're all different.