I don’t think Saudi Arabia really rates. They have universal health care, a life expectancy in the mid 70s, etc. I don’t know if living in Saudi Arabia would be worse than living in a place like Laos or Vietnam. It would be bad, but not ‘starve to death in your home while international aid is resold on the black market’ bad like they had in North Korea.
I’d say equatorial guinea is the second worst government. They are an oil rich nation run by plutocrats (the people are dirt poor, the leaders are extremely rich) and the human/civil/political rights are among the worst on earth. With a decent government life would be a lot better in EQ.
I don’t think Somalia counts, it seems more a lack of government is the problem there.
I agree in those cases the choices are more obvious. I’m thinking more of comparisons between say Ethiopia and Iran-the latter has a far more oppressive government but also has a higher average life-span and literacy rate
I agree its not quite as bad as North Korea which is in a class by itself but it rates as one of the worst governments in the world IMO. Also I’m pretty sure Vietnam or Laos never did this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Mecca_girls%27_school_fire or have capital punishment for sorcery or adultery.
Saudi Arabia has a growing women’s rights movement. Something like 20% of women have jobs and they are entering roles in the government. I have no idea if those are ceremonial roles or if they will get actual power. The abuses in other nations are worse than what happens in Saudi Arabia.
And second of all, women are not people. They are devices built by the lord Jesus Christ for our entertainment.
Thanks for sharing that, I didn’t know the North Vietnamese/Vietnamese government was that bloody. But if we are going to count Vietnam’s actions in the late 1970s shouldn’t we count the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in China too?
I think he has a fair point though-the current Vietnamese regime is the same system as the ones that carried out those atrocities while Albania and Germany clearly aren’t (the US is rather debatable in the light of the 13th Amendment and the 160 year gap).
The government in Albania is changed. Same in Germany and the US. Nice try but a pretty poor argument. Some WD40 might help you get that stick loose.
Back to the topic on hand, what is the worst government to live in as of 2013? I still think equatorial Guinea is the 2nd worst. There are nations where life sucks (DRC, Somalia, ). But I don’t think you can argue that the government plays such an activist role in making life hell for the people living there.
North Korea may not be the worst place to live on earth (a middle class Pyongyang citizens may have a better life than a dirt poor person in Sudan) but the government there does more to cause suffering and misery than any other government on earth. I’d wager Equatorial Guinea is 2nd in regards to how much pain and unhappiness the activist government causes.
Saudi Arabia has problems, but I think EQ is worse. At least Saudi Arabia spends some of their oil wealth on the people and funds education and health care. EQ just funnels all the money to corporations and the elite while everyone else is poor.
Actually, I would not be at all surprised, if Vietnam or Laos (yes, even now with purportedly rationalistic Communist governments) had capital punishment for sorcery or adultery.
I don’t know how to decide between North Korea and the Central African “Republic.” The Norks are dangerous to their neighbours and horrible to their citizens, but at least it’s a government. The Central African Republic is basically just a Mad Max free-for-all and by any statistical measure its people are even worse off than the Norks.
