Stockholm, Sweden! Very dangerous if you’re a heterosexual man, though. Try walking around in the Gamla Stan district and not walking into a light pole. The women are breathtakingly gorgeous.
It’s been touched on, but the question in the OP lacks specifying for whom. As a white, middle aged middle class male, the US is hard to beat for me. Were I a 17 year old black male, somewhere in Western Europe might be preferable to the US, but were I Turkish, I might not like the Netherlands, or France as an Algerian. Were I filthy rich, Monaco comes to mind, but I might just pick the Hamptons instead. I strongly believe, though, that if you find a country better, but you don’t make effort to move there, at some level it isn’t better enough. And last, whatever country you might find best, there’s going to still be a lot wrong with it. I mean they drive on the left in New Zealand, for god’s sake.
I think it’s the snow-skiing in June that confuses most northern-hemisphere-centric minds. :smack:
Here on the USA’s left coast, we confuse the simple-minded by snow-skiing on fresh powder in the morning, then water-skiing on lukewarm bays that same afternoon. This would be in December, though, not June.
But, then again, I did that in Japan, as well. The water just wasn’t quite as warm.
That would be my first choice: UHC even for foreign employees, strong economy, extremely low crime & drug abuse rates, very progressive education and politics. A bit expensive on imported foods and tech, though.
–G!
I’ll supplement that!
When I was teaching English, I was housed in an area of my assigned city that was considered the slum outside the heart of downtown. Nobody in my apartment complex thought twice about leaving for the workday with the front and back doors wide open (to let a bit of breeze through on those hot summer days) and no one had any problems (not even stray animals) when they returned home in the evening.
You and I have both lived in such a country. Wasn’t it wonderful!?
–G!
And, while I was abroad, my friend sent me newspaper clippings about a single day in which 1) someone stole a tank from the National Guard Armory and drove it down the freeway, crunching everything in sight; 2) someone discovered a specialized tool was stolen and utilized to uproot and divert a section of railroad track 3) some disgruntled religious separatists bombed the regional headquarters of the FBI
Gosh, :dubious: I guess I missed all the fun.
I’ve never lived in the States, so it’s hard to answer this fairly. But I remain positive about Americans (as a Canadian). Canadians can seem slightly less open and friendly. Depending on your priorities, some countries do some things better than the US.
That said, Americans do many things well. I prefer an egalitarian approach to education and health care, but some Americans have access to the best of both of these. If you enjoy walking, in many places it is obvious from the infrastructure that most Americans prefer to drive. Obviously, America continues to have tremendous influence due to pioneering modern democracy, strong economic innovation and effective use of soft power under presidents such as Bush and Obama.
I consider the US to be eight or nine regions which are fairly different. I’d live in a few of them. There are strong points and compromises, like anywhere.
I can’t think of any place superior to the United States. Thinking in terms of geographic diversity, freedom of speech, halfway sane gasoline and energy prices, and gun rights.
What does that happen to do with Earth in 2019?
You have set your premiss as something that doesn’t reflect the reality most people here accept.
Most of us on this board are very unlikely to experience a war which threatens our lives.
Pretend that you lived in an imaginary world much like earth, but there are no wars. Which country do you prefer.
Both may be interesting to debate, but that’s not what the OP is asking.
Do have a look at a list about the quality of life around the World.
This covers markers such as life expectancy, education and income. The US comes in at 13th.
It’s certainly true that the USA has a truly wonderful range of places to visit.
I’m not sure why you think other countries don’t have just as much freedom of speech. (Here in the UK we have Speaker’s Corner, for example.)
Yes, your gas prices are low - but other countries have far better public transport.
It’s not clear to me why gun rights are a good thing.
Sadly the USA has the most school shootings in the World, as well as one of the highest rates of death by firearms.
The US doesn’t have Universal Health Care.
(Despite being among the top world economic powers, the US remains the sole industrialized nation in the world without universal health care coverage.)
And (hopefully it’s temporary), the US has Trump as President. :smack:
Perhaps one day you should open a thread detailing what the point of cricket is, whether a run or an inning counts more for the final victory, what it is with Chesterfield sofas on Lord’s Cricket Ground and things like that.
As for best countries: if you are rich, Swizzerland, if you are not, Spain, if you are young, Berlin. Loved Japan when I was there decades ago, they were really kind to tourists, not sure I would like to be a gaijin though. Heard great things about Costa Rica and New Zealand, never been there (yet?). I think Scandinavia is overrated: they truly believe they are better than you, gets on my nerves. The food is awful, the winters too cold and the summers full of moskitos.
OK I’ll accept I might be out of the ordinary. I would like a strong army for my country anyway.
You are a gaijin.
In general, the Swiss are perhaps the most aloof, distant and subtlety arrogant people in all Europe, if not on Earth.
(My Grandfather was born and raised in Bern, my last name is an extremely common Swiss surname, and I have spent a fair bit of time travelling in Switzerland over the years. A beautiful place, to be sure, filled with a lot of cold, insular if outwardly polite people)
Oh, yes, I see what you mean, you are right. But I detected a great difference in attitude from Japanese people towards foreigners who were just passing, i.e. tourists like me, who got all the respect and courtesy good manners demand, and foreigners who lived there, i.e. expats (bad) or immigrants (very bad), who were not treated nearly as nicely. Those are the ones I meant when I wrote gaijin. Judging by your reply I infer that this attitude has not changed in the last 15 years. Still I would like to visit Japan again, it was a fascinating experience.
Those are great attributes if you are rich enough to look down on them, sort of proves my point 
If only it were so easy! Most developed countries mentioned in the thread so far make it difficult to emigrate from the US and attain citizenship there. Plus most folk need a job, and the way it works is you need the job offer before you can go over there on a working visa, so unless you work for a multi-national it’s difficult for many.
What we really need, in proud US-ian pro-capitalist tradition, is citizenship markets. Buy, sell, and trade your citizenships with people of other countries who would also like to emigrate / become a citizen in the US! Most people can’t afford the money needed to outright buy citizenships various places, but if they were trading their own citizenship, I’m sure lots more could and would.
I suspect some of the more patriotic-minded folk in this thread wouldn’t like the 100% capitalist answer of where the US’s citizenship value ends up ranking compared to other developed countries in this scheme, though, I bet most US-ians would have to kick in some notable amount of money rather than be able to receive money or straight swap for most of the other citizenships mentioned here.
To answer the thread title, none.
In the world democracy rankings, the US has fallen to 25th. That’s a pretty important measurable to me and something close to half, or maybe more, of our citizens aren’t really interested in improving this.