The World's Best Countries

[ColinZeal]

@Uosdwis_R.Dewoh

I’m surprised that Sweden is behind Finland. Let’s face it Finns, in D&D terms, Sweden is Finland +1. They got better food, better music, fashion sense, health care, Better capital (Stockholm is gorgeous). They’re more progressive and make better TV and films. They usually beat us at hockey. Their women are prettier. Sure, they all look like they came from the same mould, but it’s a pretty mould. They got beautiful ski resorts, on actual mountains! They got submarines! Frickin submarines!
Let’s face it, Sweden is better.

Born in Finland, raised in Sweden by finns.
Don´t know about the submarines but Sweden beats Finland.
No doubt therer.

But anyways, Sweden is on top and i´m about to move from here?
WTH is wrong with this pic?
:smack:

[septimus]

@Siam_Sam

Thailand is #7 in terms of biggest shadow economies.

Measuring evaded taxes? What percentage of those were of a certain Lt. Colonel of Police?

(And, BTW, regarding your link, surely I’m not the only one annoyed that a simple list requires one click-wait-view_ads cycle for every single list element.)

[Uosdwis_R.Dewoh]

@Siam_Sam

Sweden has moldy women?

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com

mould US, mold [məʊld]
n

1. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) a shaped cavity used to give a definite form to fluid or plastic material
2. (Miscellaneous Technologies / Building) a frame on which something may be constructed
3. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) something shaped in or made on a mould
4. shape, form, design, or pattern
5. specific nature, character, or type heroic mould

[Superfluous_Parentheses]

@Cat_Whisperer

We’re Number 7! We’re Number 7! WooT!

We’re coming for you, Canada!

That is, if Wilders doesn’t manage to make a complete mess of the country in the next year and a half.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Superfluous_Parentheses

@Cat_Whisperer

We’re Number 7! We’re Number 7! WooT!

We’re coming for you, Canada!

That is, if Wilders doesn’t manage to make a complete mess of the country in the next year and a half.

Bring it on, baby! We have bears guarding our grow ops - that should bump us up at least one level.

[Siam_Sam]

@septimus

(And, BTW, regarding your link, surely I’m not the only one annoyed that a simple list requires one click-wait-view_ads cycle for every single list element.)

Yes, Bloomberg/Business Week probably could have designed that better.

[Arrogance_Ex_Machina]

This calls for a link to this.

[elmwood]

@Arrogance_Ex_Machina

This calls for a link to this.

You mean this? Or this?

[grimpixie]

@Desert_Nomad

I thought it was rather interesting that Iran was in front of South Africa.

Thanks to our appalling health and education scores…

[RickJay]

I hate lists like this. “Let’s pick a small number of arbitrary stats, mix them together in an arbitrary manner, and run with that.”

In general I don’t think it will surprise anyone than Finland is a nicer place to live than North Korea, but this doesn’t in any way prove it’s a nicer place to live than Australia. I notice there’s no consideration of WEATHER. You can’t tell me that isn’t a factor in how nice a place is to live in.

[Arrogance_Ex_Machina]

@RickJay

I notice there’s no consideration of WEATHER. You can’t tell me that isn’t a factor in how nice a place is to live in.

I’d like to see your proposition for determining the average weather of USA for example. Even in a smaller country like Finland there’s quite a big difference between the northmost tip and Åland - with bigger countries the idea that you can somehow assign a numerical value to the country’s weather gets completely absurd. Maybe if it was about the best cities of the world you’d be able to take it into account.

Not to mention it is hard to get people to agree what is “good weather”. My ex-roomie started melting whenever temperature got over +18C, while the guy doing my work rounds during summer was wearing full winter kit in +22C with a beanie and double gloves in a work that requires constant physical activity.

[amarone]

Finland scored 102% on education, so that can’t include math(s). But wait - this list was put together by Newsweek, an American company, and Americans came 26th in education.

[Siam_Sam]

@amarone

Finland scored 102% on education, so that can’t include math(s). But wait - this list was put together by Newsweek, an American company, and Americans came 26th in education.

We’re purty good spellerz too.

[Cicero]

@Cunctator

Hmm. Some of the methodologies seem a bit woolly. And the first metric I looked at gave Australia’s average years of schooling at 20.5 years, compared with the 13-16 years of most of the rest of the top 20 countries. A figure of 20.5 implies an additional 8 years after the completion of secondary education, which severely strains credibility.

Fun to read, but I wouldn’t give much for the individual countries’ rankings, except in a very broad sense.

The 20.5 years schooling is for all the Kiwis repeating Grade 1.

[GHO57]

@amarone

Finland scored 102% on education, so that can’t include math(s). But wait - this list was put together by Newsweek, an American company, and Americans came 26th in education.

Keeping with the Canadians’ jubilation over placing 7th theme… we (Finns) noticed that too… and complained about it, demanding to be dropped to 2nd place.

[kambuckta]

@Cicero

@Cunctator

Hmm. Some of the methodologies seem a bit woolly. And the first metric I looked at gave Australia’s average years of schooling at 20.5 years, compared with the 13-16 years of most of the rest of the top 20 countries. A figure of 20.5 implies an additional 8 years after the completion of secondary education, which severely strains credibility.

Fun to read, but I wouldn’t give much for the individual countries’ rankings, except in a very broad sense.

The 20.5 years schooling is for all the Kiwis repeating Grade 1.

Oooh, burn

[Richard_Pearse]

@Cicero

@Cunctator

Hmm. Some of the methodologies seem a bit woolly. And the first metric I looked at gave Australia’s average years of schooling at 20.5 years, compared with the 13-16 years of most of the rest of the top 20 countries. A figure of 20.5 implies an additional 8 years after the completion of secondary education, which severely strains credibility.

Fun to read, but I wouldn’t give much for the individual countries’ rankings, except in a very broad sense.

The 20.5 years schooling is for all the Kiwis repeating Grade 1.

Oh ha ha! Kick us while we’re down why don’t you?

[Giles]

@Cunctator

Hmm. Some of the methodologies seem a bit woolly. And the first metric I looked at gave Australia’s average years of schooling at 20.5 years, compared with the 13-16 years of most of the rest of the top 20 countries. A figure of 20.5 implies an additional 8 years after the completion of secondary education, which severely strains credibility.

It does sound like a lot, but it may depend on what counts as a year of education. If it includes part-time years, and vocational training, and retraining for older workers, you might come close to 20.5 years. Other countries might not use the same definitions of either “year” or “education”.

[Cicero]

Now I wait for Si Blakely to turn up

[Cunctator]

@Giles

@Cunctator

Hmm. Some of the methodologies seem a bit woolly. And the first metric I looked at gave Australia’s average years of schooling at 20.5 years, compared with the 13-16 years of most of the rest of the top 20 countries. A figure of 20.5 implies an additional 8 years after the completion of secondary education, which severely strains credibility.

It does sound like a lot, but it may depend on what counts as a year of education. If it includes part-time years, and vocational training, and retraining for older workers, you might come close to 20.5 years. Other countries might not use the same definitions of either “year” or “education”.

Yes, that’s a reasonable explanation. But if so, then clearly there needs to be some sort of standardisation to allow for different countries’ definitions. Otherwise the whole survey becomes a joke.