The Good Country Index

[TheVictors]

Found this (somewhat) interesting ...and Index created to evaluate and rank how Good a Nation is. Factors include happiness, culture, prosperity and is modified by GDP so that a nation such as the US is put in proper context versus other, smaller nations.

http://www.goodcountry.org/overall

To some the US is held out to be so vastly superior to other nations and cultures that landing 21st may be disappointing, but not really so if you look at the criteria.

And stupid Canadians ...they're Gooder than we Yanks, along with being more polite!

 

[Gulo Blue]

I disagree that it's put into proper context just by scaling against GDP...doing that guarantees the US will suck. If there were a way to calculate US GDP while separating international financial services that have little to nothing to do with US industry, then maybe you'd have something to scale against. ...or maybe scale by population.

Look at the categories. US is 26th in science and technology. We're behind Lithuania, Iceland, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm not buying it. We're 4.4% of the world population and we contribute massively to tech development.

 

[Spartanmack]

I would probably take issue w/ Ireland being 9th in health and well-being - just 2 spots behind the US. My cousin had complications giving birth in a major Dublin hospital recently. When we spoke to another cousin who is an OB/Gyn in LA he said they were using techniques that were decades out of date - and no, it's not because of any kind of Catholic doctrine or influence over Irish medicine. And a few years ago my brother went to a dentist for emergency service in Dublin and said the equipment made him feel like he was on the set of an old Frankentein movie.

 

[Thumb]

I disagree that it's put into proper context just by scaling against GDP...doing that guarantees the US will suck. If there were a way to calculate US GDP while separating international financial services that have little to nothing to do with US industry, then maybe you'd have something to scale against. ...or maybe scale by population.

Look at the categories. US is 26th in science and technology. We're behind Lithuania, Iceland, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm not buying it. We're 4.4% of the world population and we contribute massively to tech development.

When I saw that Cyprus was #3 in science and technology, I closed the window.

 

[Michchamp]

When I saw that Cyprus was #3 in science and technology, I closed the window.

they seem wrong to me as well... esp. w/Ireland at the top, and the way some of those other factors jump around quite a bit. In terms of "International Peace and Security" what is the meaningful distinction between Sweden (111) and Norway (58) for example?

this list sucks.

I'm adding Victor to my blocked list!!!11

 

[Michchamp]

the best exercise I can think of about ranking society, is the one that requires you to define how it will be organized with the caveat that you have to live in it, AND you cannot pick where you will be born.

I think - and this is in accord with most ideological lines - is that the ideal situation gives the least advantage to "luck of the draw" in birth, and most help to those who will seek to improve their situation, without regard to their race, gender, socio-economic status of their parents, etc. Of course, how to implement this is, or if it's even necessary in the U.S. is where Republicans and Democrats differ...

 

[TheVictors]

I didn't create the list

 

[Michchamp]

I didn't create the list

You brought it to our attention though

 

[TheVictors]

noter dame sucks

 

[Gulo Blue]

Knute Rockne employed ringers.

 

[Michchamp]

if Notre Dame was a country, it would be last on my list. It might be first on this list though, since they love Ireland so much.