Well, that’s because you live in BrisVegas. 
FWIW, I haven’t been to the US before, but from what I’ve read I believe I could live there quite happily. I may even look at doing a little postgraduate study there in a several years time. The US fascinates me.
Interesting thread.
I do believe, sir, that calls for a “sprung!!”
Response: 
In the similar thread over at G’Dope, I spoke of imagining myself living in Australia. That would still be my first choice as port-of-call if ever I found myself leaving my island home. Next to Aussie, though, might be the US. An intriguing mix of almost everything, from what I can see. I doubt I’d ever go back to the UK and Ireland, the islands of my ancestors, aside from researching my genealogy.
Hand me bundy and coke. Or if it has to be a beer, XXXX gold, please mate. 
On topic, I understand where Kambukta is coming from, but that wouldn’t put me off living there for a while.
I’ve been to many places around the world (granted for extremely short stays), and I’d have to say that we Australians are lucky to live in a country where there is such a high standard of living as well as so much space, ethnic diversity, and such beautiful natural features.
At the moment I am 5 mins drive from the CBD of Brisbane (which is a state capital, pop. around 1m I think). If I look out over my balcony in summer I can see a mini rainforest, and hills in the distance. I can drive for around 45 mins and reach a real one. I can drive for an hour in another direction and find farms. I can drive for 5 mins and find bush (for those Brisbanites here I live in Bardon, which is near Mt Coot-tha.)
I can drive for 45 mins and there is the sea (and take a 30min ferry trip and there is a reef). 1 hour journey is the Gold Coast, beautiful beaches and great surf.
What can I say? Queensland - beautiful one day, perfect the next!
We don’t really have poverty, the medical services are good, we can get student loans easily for uni, school is free… life here is pretty sweet.
Yeah, no matter where I live, that’s a minimum requirement, I gotta be able to find a lotta bush as close to home as possible. I love bush. I think I’ll go get some bush right now.
(just trying to highlight the subtle language differences in an effort to contribute to this worthy topic!)
Australia terrifies me…too many toxic critters. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere where I’d feel the need to shake my shoes out in the morning (that would include places like Arizona, though Prescott is a great place to live). The very thought of Sydney gives me the willies, because I’ve heard too much about the funnel web. Blame the documentarians and nature shows.
I do love Australian movies though. Bliss is one of my all time favorites. I just saw 2 more good ones, Love Serenade and **Kiss or Kill. Please keep them coming. Thank you.
I’d live in Scotland, England, Ireland, New Zealand (um, was that spider in Lord of the Rings poisonous?), Switzerland, Canada (either coast). San Francisco or Seattle in the States. Any Nordic country. Iceland’s nice.
Really though, I do love Chicago. The only thing keeping Chicago from being the best city in the world is the lack of some nice snow-capped mountains on the west side.
Darn, it’d sure be nice if we could edit within a few minutes of posting. Then again, it’d be nice if I used preview, too.
You don’t get out much do you? 
Wasn’t there a UN study in the mid-90s that had Australia having the greatest gulf between rich and poor in the western world?
Wasn’t it Keating as treasurer predict Australia was on its way to becoming a banana republic, then as prime minister tried to make it a banana republic?
Have you ever had to wait months in line for elective surgery just because medical care is supposed to be free?
If school is really free, why are primary/secondary school administrators taking parents to court and trying to send them to jail because they cannot afford the “mandatory” fees the state refuses to pay for in poublic schools? When I was there more than have in the SA prison system were there because they couldn’t pay government fines and penalties. SA was never a penal colony but they run pauper’s prisons today.
Have you ever walked the city streets in those odd hours when people are leaving the pubs but before the workday begins? You know, the time when the homeless are really out and about but before the police do their sweeps to shoo them away before the morning commutes start?
If university is really that cheap why do so many default on student loans or deliberately try to get jobs that pay just enough under the threshold to have to pay back the loan – thus causing the government to further restrict educational opportunities?
Why is it if your a senior citizen pensioner, you have to have permission from the government to leave the country to visit friends or relatives overseas? And that you’ll be interrogated by the government as to where you got the money to travel? And if you told them you’ve been saving the money year by year in order to do it? And if you tell them that the government will dock you that full amount in next year’s pension?
Life can be pretty sweet when you have the sugar.
Well, speaking as someone who has lived half her life in Oz and the other half in the U.S., I shall offer my two cents.
With the exception of a few cultural differences, where I grew up in Oz could easily have been California.
To emphatically say you would never live in a country that you’ve never even visited, yet is so similar to your own, is kinda weird but it’s certainly your perogative.
I find it funny when I go home people think I’m an American and here people consider me an Aussie, but I love both countries equally and my only qualm is the distance between the two. 
Ah. This explains why Seattle is, in fact, the best city in the world.
What did the Seattleite say to the Pillsbury Dough Boy?
“Nice tan.”
But… but you would complete us kambuckta. [astro weeps inconsolably]
“Tan”? “Tan”?
What is this “tan” you speak of?
Kambuckta said
No offense to opinionated Aussies but an OP that states *“no offense to US citizens, but I wouldn’t live there in a pink fit” * IS a judgment. It IS casting aspersions. It IS offensive to US citizens. With the anniversary of our attack a mere four days away, comments such as these are even more innapropriate. I really do question the motivation of a person who posts an OP such as this.
If you merely wish to state other places you would like to live then it would be very easy to just say “gee, I think it would be just swell to live in China” or whatever applies.
But should you ever have to leave Australia for whatever reason just keep in mind that in spite of your derogatory comments, you would be welcome in The United States where we even tolerate the intolerable. Now have a nice day.
I just put the shoe on the other foot. I’m sure Australia is a nice enough country, with many varied types of people, with many varied types of communities, with many varied types of natural and scenic beauty, but it just doesn’t do anything for me. I can’t imagine living there. I don’t dislike the concept of Australia, and I don’t dislike anything I know about it, but as a place to live, it’s just … well … not for me. I think this sort of jingoistic response is why kambucta was hoping to stay out of the pit.
I would want to live in an industrialized country. Ok, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe, parts of Asia, parts of Latin America, small parts of Africa.
With baseball. That leaves the Americas and Asia.
Where it’s not hot. Now I’m down to the U.S., Canada and Japan.
Where I have I a reasonable chance of learning the language in my lifetime. So - USA or Canada. I live in one, and I will hold dual citizenship in the other. Aren’t I lucky?
Well, I could never live in Australia in a storm of green diarrhea (geez you Aussies talk funny - is it mandated by the Board of Tourism?).
Mostly I feel sorry for kambuckta for he has evidently never tasted good American barbecue.
From Mirriam-Webster.
Main Entry: jin·go·ism
Pronunciation: 'ji[ng]-(")gO-"i-z&m
Function: noun
Date: 1878
: extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy
While I applaud your semi-correct usage of the word jingoistic, I do not think it applies to my comments which were made to draw attention to how hypocritical I feel it is to preface what any reasonable person would interpret as an offensive comment with the words “No offense but” and then seem surprised when people are offended.
Take the following random statements merely given as examples.
This Years Model is one of the stupidest usernames I have ever heard.
and compare it with
No offense but, I think This Years Model is one of the stupidest usernames I have ever heard.
Does the second statement make you feel any better about the comment? Is it any less offensive because I said “no offense but,”? How about the fact that I said I was only saying it “as an example”? Does that make it better?
THE MERMAID, you of course may feel offended if you wish, but the clear majority of Americans posting to this thread do not feel that way. Frankly, if I would object to anything in this thread, it would be your tying your own personal offense to the proximity of 9/11, as if others have some obligation to be extra-sensitive because of our American tragedy.
Obviously the OP is a judgment; the lady would not care to live here. But it is NOT casting aspersions and it is NOT offensive to U.S. citizens, and, most importantly, it has fuck-all to do with 9/11. IMO, tying every American offense, perceived or real, to 9/11 cheapens that event, and that is something I personally find distasteful.
Now, I am perfectly willing to assume that was not the impression you intended to leave with me – just as I hope you will recognize that KAMBUCKTA did not mean to leave the impression on you that she apparently did.
Your choice to take offense is, obviously, your own. But in this matter and so far, you are speaking only for yourself.
Yes I speak for myself. That is true. The truth is I am only mildly annoyed at best by the OP. Live where you want, I couldn’t care less.
But if you are going to say something that you know could be potentially offensive, prefacing it with the comment “no offense but” does not make it right or any less annoying. Say what you want but say it with conviction.
Personally I am a little disgusted by all the hype as well but there are many people who feel differently. Emotions are high. Nerves are ragged. The date is on a lot of people’s minds whether you believe it to be relevant or not. Surely non-Americans realize this as well.
Hell, for what it’s worth, I am a Coloradoan before I am an American. I would not choose to live in places like:
New York City
Los Angles
San Franciso
Any part of the south east
Any place that has humidity above 70% a majority of the year
Any place that the snow stays for months on end
Any place that has average of 100ºF in the summer
Texas
So it looks like I will stay in my Rocky Mtn state and enjoy my life here. (Wyoming and New Mexico would be two other states I would live in, but hey, they practically are Colorado anyway.) hehe < insert evil grinning emoticon here >
Well, if I had to move out of the country, Australia and New Zealand would be my first picks. I don’t fly so it’d be a long boat ride with all my belongings. Guess I will stay home.
Besides, Texas is “A Whole Other Country” hehe