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Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Old Oct 12th 2009, 4:15 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by hereandthere
UK was at 16 in the last survey and that was derived from 2004 figures. This year it's at 21 and these are at 2007 figures. I dread to think what number it will be at when the crash of 2007-2008 is incorporated for the next round. I can easily see it going closer to 30 - remember it's not just financial measurements but also life expectancy and education and other things not measureable in USD. It's quite a respected index and a fair reflection of the overall quality of life in a state.
Never know,but of even of greater relievence, wonder where the next survey will place Iceland?
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Old Oct 12th 2009, 4:43 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by the troubadour
Never know,but of even of greater relievence, wonder where the next survey will place Iceland?
A good point - it's often been No. 1 but I think next time round it'll drop a few places for sure. I think Canada will move up from 4 for one thing. Norway Aussie and Canada should be in one order or another in the top three - I hope!
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Old Oct 12th 2009, 9:14 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by hereandthere
UK was at 16 in the last survey and that was derived from 2004 figures. This year it's at 21 and these are at 2007 figures. I dread to think what number it will be at when the crash of 2007-2008 is incorporated for the next round. I can easily see it going closer to 30 - remember it's not just financial measurements but also life expectancy and education and other things not measureable in USD. It's quite a respected index and a fair reflection of the overall quality of life in a state.
A lot of this is personal. From my point of view Canada was a struggle financialy, it took me 2 weeks to get an appointment with a doctor, and the quality of roads and driving were diabolical.

The fact that in the UK I can earn more money, take my kids out in the car without the risk of some Dodge driving redneck sideswiping my car, and see a doctor the same evening if I feel ill. Makes my quality of life far above Canada, that matters far more than what some anonymous UN bean counter thinks.
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Old Oct 12th 2009, 12:01 pm
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

the trouble with this survey is that people seem to be treating it like the premiership, with Australia as Manchester United and Britain as Portsmouth or recently relegated West Brom, when actually there's far less of an obvious gulf in quality or points scored: the "scores" used to rank countires show precious little difference across the top 20 or so: Norway and Australia are on 0.971 and 0.970, while 20 places below them you have New Zealand, Britain, and Germany, on 0.950 - 0.947. So the difference in "score" between Australia (Paradise!) and Britain (Hellhole!) is only 0.023: 2.3% less than the highest ranked nations. The difference in scores between places 21 to 40 is almost three times greater than the difference between places 1 and 21.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...elopment_Index
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Old Oct 12th 2009, 9:28 pm
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by jonfrank123
A lot of this is personal. From my point of view Canada was a struggle financialy, it took me 2 weeks to get an appointment with a doctor, and the quality of roads and driving were diabolical.

The fact that in the UK I can earn more money, take my kids out in the car without the risk of some Dodge driving redneck sideswiping my car, and see a doctor the same evening if I feel ill. Makes my quality of life far above Canada, that matters far more than what some anonymous UN bean counter thinks.
I agree with you really - your quality of life will depend on your "vertical" moves rather than your "horizontal" ones, if you see what I mean, and these vertical moves can be achieved in any country. It is perfectly possible to have a very high standard of living in Britain, IMO, and it still has a lot to offer.

The issue of nations being very close is a good point, but the part of interest to me is the direction in which certain nations are travelling, not their relative proximity to other nations. Britain has slipped from 10 to 21 in less than two decades, so its trend is clearly in decline, rather than static or improving like other states.
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 3:03 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by hereandthere
A good point - it's often been No. 1 but I think next time round it'll drop a few places for sure. I think Canada will move up from 4 for one thing. Norway Aussie and Canada should be in one order or another in the top three - I hope!
Actually if the stats were to reflect slightly different criteria,namely services available to inhabitants of the country,such as medical care,(including type of drugs available)unemployment assistance,job retraining,retirement pensions,old age care, child care,rights of the individual,etc,etc expect we would still see Norway rated highly(as with it's neighbours) but unlikely the other two nations Australia or Canada would maintain such a high placement.
Same as if we measure the level of happiness...
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 9:09 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by the troubadour
Actually if the stats were to reflect slightly different criteria,namely services available to inhabitants of the country,such as medical care,(including type of drugs available)unemployment assistance,job retraining,retirement pensions,old age care, child care,rights of the individual,etc,etc expect we would still see Norway rated highly(as with it's neighbours) but unlikely the other two nations Australia or Canada would maintain such a high placement.
Same as if we measure the level of happiness...
I once worked with a guy form Norway several years ago and he was from Bergen and I was surprised at how bad he viewed the Norwegian state system in regards to hospital treatment. He stated that appointments could be hard to get depending on where you lived and the quality of service wasn`t great either in the hospitals. Also the cost of housing was sky high in comparison to nearby Sweden and the condition of roads were poor as well. He could have been extremely biased in his views as he hated living in Norway but then again there could have been some truth to his gripe.
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 9:31 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by the troubadour
Same as if we measure the level of happiness...
Happiness makes a far more interesting criteria, as all of the above points that you have brought up on the previous thread, suggest that if a country has these strong points such as the Scandinavian countries then the population should in theory be happy. In practice though, suicide and depression levels are very high in these countries, which leads me to concur that the physical environment plays a very important role as well. What is the point of being in such an advanced country and having access to such great amenities if gray skies and long cold dark winter months gradually erode the positive elements from somebody`s mind. It seems that somebody in southern europe would be far happier because the sun and climate count more than excellent amenities, of course the ultimate for many would be a combination of these two factors: First rate amenities and an excellent sunny climate and based on the survey results with this criteria in mind... mmmmm...lets see who comes out on top as the best place in which to live.....ah It Australia! I think all the people packing their bags and leaving Aus are making one hell of mistake
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 9:49 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by the troubadour
Actually if the stats were to reflect slightly different criteria,namely services available to inhabitants of the country,such as medical care,(including type of drugs available)unemployment assistance,job retraining,retirement pensions,old age care, child care,rights of the individual,etc,etc expect we would still see Norway rated highly(as with it's neighbours) but unlikely the other two nations Australia or Canada would maintain such a high placement.
Same as if we measure the level of happiness...
Absolutely, compared with the UK, Canada is dire when it comes to provision of free at point of use medicine. To see the way a member of my wifes's family has been treated regarding old age homes over there shows what their atitiude to old people is like. Im glad I won't be growing old in Canada!!. I won't even start on the pathetic levels of paid annual leave one can expect from a Canadian job. I'm really struggling to see why the place scores so highly !!
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 10:00 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by Jules Europe
Happiness makes a far more interesting criteria, as all of the above points that you have brought up on the previous thread, suggest that if a country has these strong points such as the Scandinavian countries then the population should in theory be happy. In practice though, suicide and depression levels are very high in these countries, which leads me to concur that the physical environment plays a very important role as well. What is the point of being in such an advanced country and having access to such great amenities if gray skies and long cold dark winter months gradually erode the positive elements from somebody`s mind. It seems that somebody in southern europe would be far happier because the sun and climate count more than excellent amenities, of course the ultimate for many would be a combination of these two factors: First rate amenities and an excellent sunny climate and based on the survey results with this criteria in mind... mmmmm...lets see who comes out on top as the best place in which to live.....ah It Australia! I think all the people packing their bags and leaving Aus are making one hell of mistake
The weather just isn't that important to some people, happiness is far more complex than that. I know people who have moved back from Spain and are very happy back in the UK. On trips to Australia I found the extreme heat and flies pretty annoying, you can't say that everyone leaving Aus is making a mistake.
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 10:07 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by jonfrank123
The weather just isn't that important to some people, happiness is far more complex than that. I know people who have moved back from Spain and are very happy back in the UK. On trips to Australia I found the extreme heat and flies pretty annoying, you can't say that everyone leaving Aus is making a mistake.
Personally I hate the heat and there are others like me out there as well, but the vast majority of normal people seem to like it (Maybe not the really extreme stuff though) so it was viewed from the perspective of Mr.Normal etc and the remark about Aus was not really meant in a serious manner either, it was just the natural answer based on Troubadour`s points and my slant on the happiness angle.
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Old Oct 13th 2009, 9:03 pm
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by Jules Europe
Happiness makes a far more interesting criteria, as all of the above points that you have brought up on the previous thread, suggest that if a country has these strong points such as the Scandinavian countries then the population should in theory be happy. In practice though, suicide and depression levels are very high in these countries, which leads me to concur that the physical environment plays a very important role as well. What is the point of being in such an advanced country and having access to such great amenities if gray skies and long cold dark winter months gradually erode the positive elements from somebody`s mind. It seems that somebody in southern europe would be far happier because the sun and climate count more than excellent amenities, of course the ultimate for many would be a combination of these two factors: First rate amenities and an excellent sunny climate and based on the survey results with this criteria in mind... mmmmm...lets see who comes out on top as the best place in which to live.....ah It Australia! I think all the people packing their bags and leaving Aus are making one hell of mistake
Nice in theory but Australia has higher levels of suicide than many other "desirable" countries - and a recent report indicated that the suicide numbers may have been under reported by as much as 30%. Mental health here is not good especially amongst the young and youth suicide - although rates have declined in the last 5 years - is still up there. On a personal level - I can tell you that waking up to blue skies every day is an incredibly downer and I have no doubt that many folk out there in the bush feel the same way when they have no water - suicide amongst country folk is also at high levels at the moment.

Ah, edited after seeing your reply about the logical conclusion - never mind, the issue is still there and definitely contraindicates the logic.

Last edited by quoll; Oct 13th 2009 at 9:06 pm.
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Old Oct 14th 2009, 4:01 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by quoll
Nice in theory but Australia has higher levels of suicide than many other "desirable" countries - and a recent report indicated that the suicide numbers may have been under reported by as much as 30%. Mental health here is not good especially amongst the young and youth suicide - although rates have declined in the last 5 years - is still up there. On a personal level - I can tell you that waking up to blue skies every day is an incredibly downer and I have no doubt that many folk out there in the bush feel the same way when they have no water - suicide amongst country folk is also at high levels at the moment.

Ah, edited after seeing your reply about the logical conclusion - never mind, the issue is still there and definitely contraindicates the logic.

Suicide rate in Australia - 10.9 / 100,000
Suicide rate in UK - 6.8 / 100,000
Suicide rate in France 17.6 / 100,000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_suicide_rate
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Old Oct 14th 2009, 4:18 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by Jules Europe
Happiness makes a far more interesting criteria, as all of the above points that you have brought up on the previous thread, suggest that if a country has these strong points such as the Scandinavian countries then the population should in theory be happy. In practice though, suicide and depression levels are very high in these countries, which leads me to concur that the physical environment plays a very important role as well. What is the point of being in such an advanced country and having access to such great amenities if gray skies and long cold dark winter months gradually erode the positive elements from somebody`s mind. It seems that somebody in southern europe would be far happier because the sun and climate count more than excellent amenities, of course the ultimate for many would be a combination of these two factors: First rate amenities and an excellent sunny climate and based on the survey results with this criteria in mind... mmmmm...lets see who comes out on top as the best place in which to live.....ah It Australia! I think all the people packing their bags and leaving Aus are making one hell of mistake
Suspect that once all the above are in place folk would still be in search of this elusive feeling of contentment in their lives.
A few years ago can recall stats that pointed to the island nation of Vanuatu,as being the happiest nation on earth.
One can perhaps conclude from that finding that there is something to be said for a rather less materialistic more simplistic lifestyle in a place where folk find a sense of belonging away from world distractions?
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Old Oct 14th 2009, 4:37 am
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Default Re: Australia voted 2nd best in world for quality of life

Originally Posted by Jules Europe
I once worked with a guy form Norway several years ago and he was from Bergen and I was surprised at how bad he viewed the Norwegian state system in regards to hospital treatment. He stated that appointments could be hard to get depending on where you lived and the quality of service wasn`t great either in the hospitals. Also the cost of housing was sky high in comparison to nearby Sweden and the condition of roads were poor as well. He could have been extremely biased in his views as he hated living in Norway but then again there could have been some truth to his gripe.
Rather surprised to read that. Some Norwegians a little to the right in their political stance view the present system with distaste,stating the high taxes required to support what they see as a nanny state ...A long time friend from Bergen stated a few years ago to me how happy she was that they returned back to Norway from Canada after her partner suffered a life threatening illness and felt the standard was so much higher than would have been the case in North America.
Could just be her angle on things?? No idea on the roads. Sweden being an already expensive country would think it strange that Norway would be sky high if compared with... must look out some info on that..
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