Too funny. the absurdity of arbitrary numbers. I present, Business insider's 16 greatest places to live.
Based on the happy planet index. Which measures 'happiness', 'longevity', 'ecological footprint', plus GDP for no good reason. And finally we know that Saudi Arabia is the best place in the world to live!
Can't argue with numbers. Hey, Austria is #16. But only because they got rid of all those silly libertarian economists.
Wow, there are some real shit holes there Mexico, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia really!?!. I bet if Siberia was it's own country it would be #17 due to it's high "ecological footprint".
And for what it is worth: #71 USA had the highest "life satisfaction" ot of any country listed, but suffered due to an "ecological footprint". I am not sure what I just stated.
I didn't realize you could objectively measure "happiness"... silly me.
I looked at how the ecological foot print is calculated, and basically the more resources a country uses, the higher its score (which counts against that country). They talk a lot about sustainability and so on. Me thinks they don't understand the price system or property rights.
I find it interesting that the US beats Saudi Arabia in every category but "ecological footprint", but the US is ranked 71 and Saudi Arabia is first... hmmm. It was good for a laugh though :)
I've seen the Happy Plannet Index before and it's hopelessly flawed. Despite it's name, it doesn't only happiness. And it's even terribly off tracking in their ranking of who's happiest. Here's a more accurate list: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/05/world-happiest-places-lifestyle-travel-world-happiest_slide_2.html?thisspeed=25000
Most of them are clustered together in the same area.
It is slightly better than astrology.
(english is not my native language, sorry for grammar.)
If you count living in some private gated community, I agree that Saudi Arabia is the best place to live in.
Ironic: I've never seen so many "gas guzzlers" as in Saudi Arabia. The country loves big "earth-killing" cars so much that Volkswagen even built a version of their Touareg SUV fitted with a 6 liter W12 engine exclusively for the Arabian market.
But in the end I guess when you travel in first class and stay only in five starts hotel every country is as good as the next one.