Please explain how the U.S. doesn't even make it in the top TEN countries in which to live??

Question

Excerpt from yahoo:

Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world's most desirable country to live in, according to an annual U.N. table published on Tuesday that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom.
Rich free-market countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year in the U.N. Human Development Index.

But the index, blending 2005 figures for life expectancy, educational levels and real per capita income, finds that all 22 countries falling into its "low human development" category are in sub-Saharan Africa, with Sierra Leone last.
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Yes, I can see how national health care is really awful- the first
five countries all have and seem to be doing quite well in every way...

With all our resources, there is NO EXCUSE for us not to be Numero Uno!

Answer 1

And then there's a real possibility that Hillary Clinton might be our next President.........that's enough to drive anybody to Iceland.

I do agree with "calm" about this being a "futile" nation though. LOL

Answer 2

Life expectancy - we're a very violent nation, we're an obese nation, and our health care system doesn't perform as well in the most important indicators - infant mortality and life exectency.

The health system is a drain on our financial resources, and real per capita income probably isn't as good because of the increasingly uneven distribution of wealth.

It's not a political thing, it's an objective (though arbitrary) measure of certain traits that they feel contibute to overall wellness amongst the general population.

Obviously Americans wouldn't want to live anywhere else, and that seems to be true of many Mexicans, as well, but I think you'd find those in the 11 nations above us probably feel the same way about their homelands.

Answer 3

Not everyone has access to healthcare and good education in the U.S., the crime rate is high, life expectancy is not very high, there is a lot of pollution, non-renewable energy, per capita income is not very high (even though you have some really rich people you have a lot of really poor ones too). Those are some of the main reasons.

The thing is, the U.S. keep telling themselves that they are the best country in the world and that they are best in all fields. That may have been true at some point in history, but times have changed, without the U.S. wanting to admit it. You are very rich in resources and you could excel again and move up that list, but to make that possible you need to swallow your pride and admit to yourselves that you are lagging behind some countries now. You could learn from the countries that are doing better. You could try out some of the things that are obviously working in Scandinavia and maybe even find ways to improve it.

Answer 4

By Thomas Jefferson's standard, we are about 200 years late in watering the Tree of Liberty with the blood of tyrants, so it has already long withered and died. Your great grandparents fought in WWI over complex diplomatic maneuvers intended to prolong the war for profiteering, and in WWII in order to protect China, and beyond that because Hitler made a miscalculation in thinking he could get the Russians into a two-front war via Japan to alleviate his mistake in staring a war on Germany's Russian front (this being his one serious error). Accordingly, you can expect another train bombing or 9/11 to have the effect of gluing people obsessively to their televisions, waiting for additional mass-coordinated brainwashing by the Zionist media, which actually advances its cause far more readily by getting Americans to holding very still for more parasiting than it would by getting them actively doing just about anything. At this point, global degredative Neoliberal Zionism is such that the real Freedom Fighters--in the sense consistent with J.S. Mill's conception of Liberty, which is less about your right to be a product-smearing pervert and more about your right to an uplifting life--are the Wahhabis.

Answer 5

Seems we have some work to do. Let's all do our best to be in the top 10...Lets start by allowing those who are unhappy here a chance to leave....instead of complaining constantly just look at it as an opportunity for expand your horizons...and gain some usefull knowledge...like being so hungry you might die,or being killed for touching someones shoulder in greeting,or living a whole month on $20 worth of fish and rice like many countries do.Your heart will break at how excessive we americans are...Then you will really be happy, because your hate USA chant will be common and musically accepted.And as you gather others to your jihad of "countricide" you too will feel so proud to be part of a real solution...Maybe where you move will be in the top 10 someday...Good Luck!

Answer 6

Capitalism is at fault,
because our government is only concerned about big business. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Holland are all Socialist free market countries. The government protects the people not big business.
American have been brainwashed in to thinking that socialism is bad and evil.

But most Americans are in their hearts are socialists.

the Democrats are trying to protect the US citizens from fascist republicans.
here now your answer
If you want affordable health care
affordable education for your kids
social security for your retirement
affordable elderly care
A clean environment
A working infrastructure
habeas corpus
stem cell research so that your loved ones and future loved ones that are very ill have a chance for a better life.
and much more
If you want the above you are a liberal Democrat or Socialist

If you want the CEO'S of big corporate AMERICA TO RAKE IN MANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS EACH YEAR AS A SALARY
if you want to lose your privacy
if you want the war to continue only to lose precious American lives so that
Haliburton and the like can rake in tremendous amounts of tax free money.

If you want to live in a fascist hell vote republican

Liberal Democrats are open minded educated thinkers

republicans are narrow minded simpletons

Answer 7

If both Iceland and the United States shared a border with Mexico, illegal aliens would head to Iceland first. Is that an insult, or a compliment?


The United States is the most economically and technologically modernized country in the world.

But it doesn't have a guaranteed healthcare system (as do the more "desirable" countries).

And it can't decide how to deal with its immigration problems.

And it makes a habit of stirring up international and civil strife by invading and occupying third-world countries full of pissed-off religious extremists.

And it's an extremely high-risk target for terrorist activities (no one calls for jihad in Iceland).


Hence, its unpopularity as a country in which to live.

Answer 8

The HDI takes into account the availability of education, and the average education level of citizens. Therefore the high high school drop-out rate and expensive college tuition drag down the US in spite of having institutions like Harvard and MIT. Obesity and a propensity for violence hit the US hard when it comes to life expectancy.

Another thing that drags down the US in the HDI is high infant mortality. Without a national health care system, a lot of pregnant women miss out on pre-natal care. To be blunt, it's the 14 year old moms bearing crack-babies that give the US a third world level of infant mortality. In other countries, troubled pregnancies are more likely to be terminated and thus not drag down the HDI.

Answer 9

Good Day, your looking at politics in action. The U.N. is just that, a body of people with little to lots of power and all want to be heard like the kid in the back of the church that has his hand up, just to go to the bathroom, and the minister doesn't see him Thur the fog in his own mind.

Other things to look at the record of the U.N. what they stand for and what they never do or get, but ask for.

Someday I want to have a org. that has free rent in N.Y. City, Free lights, in fact all of it's power and water and maintains done for them at no cost. Then just sit and pick on those I don't agree with, oh wait, i would have to run for congress to get to do that!

Answer 10

I think it might be that some members of our own country have a self hatred for there ancestry, culture, and therefore a hatred of there country. It might have a little something to do with the idea that if you ask a liberal if our country is the best in the world, or that America is special or different in any way, they will go say that we have no right to say that were better than anyone else. Which, if your dealing with people to people comparisons is fine, but country to country doesn't really work. Sorry for the novel, here's the short version. Some people who live in America, hate America. weird huh?

Answer 11

its just the formula they used. our life expectancy isnt extremely high since everyone here is fat, crime is higher here than in a lot of european countries, and the education system isnt the greatest either. but yeah i doubt the us would be the best place to live, im surprised its all the way down to #12 though. but like someone said there are a lot of crapholes and inner city ghettos, its not all the suburbia that most of the people on YA live in