# What nation do you consider the greatest on earth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 15, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623 "2009-11-15T02:29:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623/81 "2009-11-18T17:53:35Z")

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Nobody I know has required a cobbler’s services since about 1968.

[America: The Book] New Zealand has 15 sheep for every orc. [/A:TB]

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623/82 "2009-11-18T19:33:00Z")

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> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Did you miss the part about how Ireland doesn’t do so well by women? And the 20% _emigration_ rate?

I don’t really know what that statistic is meant to mean but the Republic of Ireland just this year registered its first net outward migration total since 1995, so for the past 13 years it has been a place people have been flocking to, not from.

“The number of emigrants from the State in the year to April 2009 is estimated to  
have increased by over 40% from 45,300 to 65,100, while the number of  
immigrants continued to decline over the same period, from 83,800 to 57,300.  
These combined changes have resulted in a return to net outward migration for  
Ireland (-7,800) for the first time since 1995.”

Cite: [http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/current/popmig.pdf](http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/current/popmig.pdf)

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623/83 "2009-11-22T23:53:28Z")

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United States of America…for now.

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**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-nation-do-you-consider-the-greatest-on-earth/517623/84 "2009-11-23T14:49:04Z")

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From my time riding the New York subways, I was always told the greatest nation in the world was DONATION.

The greatest city? GENEROSITY. 🙂

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