What's your country like?

[Loppan Torkel]

Just a short review of the country you live in and some countries you would consider moving to.

Sweden:
Pros - rich, good welfare with reliable healthcare, transportation and good education possibilities, low corruption and crime, goodlooking women, a 'rightwing' government for the next three years, a fairly educated population that pushes for enviromental issues to be dealt with.

Cons - cold climate with short summers and long, dark winters, high taxes.

Overall a pretty nice country to live in, but the climate and darkness is a huge minus.
France and Australia are the top choices for me to move to, french is such a lovely language but I don't understand it and I'm not sure of the politics in France... both of them seem like nice countries to live in though.

 

[luiz]

Pros - Good weather, good beaches, good women, good football.

Cons - Socialism, stupid / ignorant people, corrupt people and government, Lula.

 

[Murky]

America:

Pros

• Freedom, personal and religious freedom
• Most of us live in a relatively comfortable temperate climate zone
• Good infrastructure for businesses and homes
• Lots of innovative ideals and motivated people behind them
• Strong economic foundation and relatively low unemployment
• Great constitutional foundation for government
• Lots of opportunity for nearly everyone to succeed

Cons

• Right-Wing nut jobs make up a big part of the voting population
• Schools are often inadequately funded and mismanaged
• Almost all health care providers and insurance companies are profit motivated
• Too many people willing to rape the environment for profit
• Lots of irreversible damage has been done to the environment
• Too many people believe in silly superstitions instead of science based reasoning
• Huge and growing income inequality between the richest 1% and the bottom 50%
• Idiotic warmonger in the White House.

 

[brainpan]

Your biggest problem might be living in Missouri, Murky.

 

[philippe]

Belgium: a country with 631 members of parliament, 58 ministers, 6 goverments and 7 parlements. This in an area smaller then most American states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium
http://wikitravel.org/en/Belgium

I'd love to move somewhere to central or Eastern Europe, I think there are a lot of opportunities there, (building a beautiful house, getting in a growing economy)
If I could i'd also want to live a year or so in Tokio (or in any grand awe-taking place) , but that's a big no-no i guess.

 

[Catharsis]

Britain

Pros: saner politics than America, good climate considering its latitude, Stephen Fry, ad-free terrestrial channels, Channel Tunnel so we can go to France and remind ourselves of how brilliant Britain is.

Cons: Big Brother on Channel 4, lots of rain, chavs, absolutely terrible at every sport, political parties too concerned with image, Liverpool, the Geordie accent.

What's that you say? Move? No matter where I go, I will return to my English rose, for no bonds can ever keep me from she.

 

[Civfan333]

I know it's not a country, but Hawaii is completely different from the rest of the USA. The people, the atitude about everything, the culture, and the weather are all completely different.

1. Most people are very nice and friendly
2. Nice waves fo surfing.
3. Good beaches everywhere
4. Nice place to live

cons.

1. My mom says everything is very expensive.

Bottom line is that I'd never ever want to move anywhere else. (Maybe southern Africa and maybe Fiji.)

 

[GVBN]

Pros: Welfare
Cons: Welfare

 

[EdCase]

Pros : Its Britain !

Cons : I live in the USA

 

[Steph]

France and Australia are the top choices for me to move to, french is such a lovely language but I don't understand it and I'm not sure of the politics in France... both of them seem like nice countries to live in though.

France is ze nicest coontree is ze vorld!

Ask if you have a question!

France has lot of different sceneries (high mountains, low mountains, forest, sea side, ocean side), nice climate with variety (mountainous, oceanic, mediterranean, rain in Brittany), good services (healthcare, transportation, internet)...

It has however one major drawback: it's full of French. All of them are arrogant chauvinist.

Pros: saner politics than America, good climate considering its latitude, ad-free terrestrial channels, Channel Tunnel so we can go to France and remind ourselves of how brilliant Britain is.

Between the fog, the clouds and the rain, the Sun never shine in Great Britain. So the brittons have convinced themselves they are bright, but that's just because they have nothing else to compare themselves with in their country where everything is dull.

 

[BirraImperial]

Costa Rica:

Pros: Beautiful Beaches, beautiful women, nice mountains, lots of nature (animals, plants and stuff). Relatively stable, safe environment. Most people are nice, relatively good living standard.

Cons: Potholes in the streets, poverty of some people, transportation services suck big time. Very high inflation. Socialist idiots trying to turn us into the next Venezuela.

I would like to live in Australia (Cool beaches and nice women, I've heard) or in Germany (Been /lived there several times, greatest beer on Earth) , Spain (Motherland) or some other country in Europe.

 

[BirraImperial]

It has however one major drawback: it's full of French. All of them are arrogant chauvinist.

Hahahaha, and they can't speak English!!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Britain

Pros: saner politics than America, good climate considering its latitude, Stephen Fry, ad-free terrestrial channels, Channel Tunnel so we can go to France and remind ourselves of how brilliant Britain is.

Cons: Big Brother on Channel 4, lots of rain, chavs, absolutely terrible at every sport, political parties too concerned with image, Liverpool, the Geordie accent.

What's that you say? Move? No matter where I go, I will return to my English rose, for no bonds can ever keep me from she.

Liverpool? I hope you mean the football team and not the place

Pros: A bit like America but better. Everton FC.
Cons: Liverpool FC, Manchester, London and Birmingham.

 

[Dubai Vol]

Dubai:

Pros:
No taxes
No crime
Perfect weather for the next four months

Cons:
Explosive growth has created overcrowding and inflation (think Seattle in the '90s but worse)
Third most dangerous place to drive in the world (after Saudi and another neighbor)
Heat and humidity from March though October that make southeastern US summers seem mild and pleasant.
Locals

 

[Mirc]

Pros:

- Beautiful landscapes
- Very varied landscapes (green mountains, rocky mountains, forests, plains, hills with forests, hills without forests, sea, Danube Delta, lakes) for its size
- Lots of history (oldest continuously inhabited city is ~2500 years old)
- Economy is improving
- You can live an absolutely great, luxurious life as an average person from another country
- Most things (especially drinks) are cheap for a foreigner

Cons:

- Poor, compared to most of Europe.
- Undeveloped infrastructure (example: we have a grand total of 2.5 freeways - 2 finished and 1 just started)
- Lots, lots, lots of stupid people. There are many REALLY intelligent people too, but it's full of stupid people also. But from what I see, that happens in most of the world.
- The climate is EXTREME. This summer we had 45 Celsius MEASURED IN THE SHADOW (close to 53 Celsius in the sunlight), and last winter we had -16 Celsius... In the same city! While this is definitely not the norm, it should give you an idea.
- Corruption. While it's LOW compared to the rest of the Balkans, it's not really at Central/Western European standard either.


All in all, I think it's a really great place to see as a tourist (sights, history, women, nightlife), or to live in as someone who wasn't born here or who lived a long part of his life somewhere else. Not a great place to be born in. Still much better than many parts of the world right now, but significantly below Europe average in terms of quality of life for a native.

 

[Steph]

Hahahaha, and they can't speak English!!

Yes we can! It's just that our form of English is hardly understandable by people from the United Kingdom or North America. Is it our fault if they are a little limited in their language skills and cannot understand others?

 

[El Koeno]

Costa Rica:

Pros: .. beautiful women, ...

Only in Heredia though.

Netherlands:
Pros: Weed is semi-legal, decent level of public provisions, people know our football team

Cons: Tourists on weed, level of public provisions never gets better than "decent", our football team doesn't accomplish too much these days

I'm sure there's more Dutch people around who have some more thoughtful comments...

 

[downtown]

The United States is a huge country. You could live your entire life here, and never see all of it. As such, whats true in one area might not be true of another...the people, climates, problems, change from state to state.

I'm not going to dwell on SOCIALISM, or FREEDOM, or really big macro government stuff, because it typically doesn't affect me on a day to day basis.

Some cool things about America:
Sports! We're awesome at a lot of sports (just not...soccer or rugby). There are open fields everywhere for people to play. If I walk a few blocks, I can find 2 different public basketball courts, a baseball diamond, an outdoor soccer field, and an indoor soccer field. If you like sports, there are plenty of teams to watch, and places to play.

Food! Sure, we might not have our own local cuisine, but since everybody and their brother have moved to America, we can get everybody else's!

Music! Americans, and their cities, support the performing arts! We have a ton of great musical talent all over America, and we've been leading the way in musical innovations for a long time. Even people who live in small towns (40,000 and under), can see great local bands for less than 8 bucks.

People really are actually friendly. Sure, we're often loud, but we're not aloof. I've traveled all across America, and I've been impressed with the people here.

This is a great place to make money. Unemployment is low in America, and there are plenty of entry level jobs in every city for folks to get their feet wet. Taxation isn't so bad when compared to other western democracies. This is also a great place to start a business.

Things that kind of suck

Social Service Quality is often not very good. If you live in a big city, chances are, your public transportation quality will be poor. Outside of suburban districts, public education is often not wonderful, and private schools are not always much better. In Columbus, there are times when my streets reek of sewage, because th garbage guys the government hired suck at their jobs. You get what you pay for here.

In a lot of the country, the weather is a drag. Either way too hot, or way too cold. Ohio is depressing for half of the year.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I didn't see any curry restaurants when I was in America... what's all that about?

 

[downtown]

^where were you? I have two less than 10 min form me.