Compare any 2 countries on quality of life

Think Different · Post by **Think Different** » January 27th, 2011, 6:43 pm

This is really cool and gives a good snapshot of typical QOL issues. This link compares the US to Switzerland, but you can plug in any 2 countries and compare, e.g. Philippines and China.

Hopefully it will help those searching to find their next home away from the US, if that's their yearning.

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/CH

rome86 · Post by **rome86** » January 28th, 2011, 12:42 pm

reddog you are a genius where did you find this ? it is amazing .

E_Irizarry · Post by **E_Irizarry** » January 28th, 2011, 1:55 pm

@RedDog,

Oh that shit is hot. I'm not telling you guys which countries I'm comparing. LOLOLOLLOL

Think Different · Post by **Think Different** » January 28th, 2011, 5:15 pm

I'm glad this can be helpful. I actually stumbled across it on an Italian expat blog.

odbo · Post by **odbo** » January 28th, 2011, 10:07 pm

they site favors the US far too much.

Take a country like Peru or Kazakhstan. Might be great in the city, and really backwards in the country (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but this sways the average to where the country looks terrible to live in, especially if people take really shit care of themselves out of choice, like refusing to wear condoms, binge eating, and playing motoball without helmets, which has nothing to do with poverty like in Africa. Where as is the US is nearly identical for a lot of things nationwide.

In any case, Americans sure consume a ton of oil!

E_Irizarry · Post by **E_Irizarry** » January 29th, 2011, 2:26 pm

LinuxOnly wrote:they site favors the US far too much.

Take a country like Peru or Kazakhstan. Might be great in the city, and really backwards in the country (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but this sways the average to where the country looks terrible to live in, especially if people take really shit care of themselves out of choice, like refusing to wear condoms, binge eating, and playing motoball without helmets, which has nothing to do with poverty like in Africa. Where as is the US is nearly identical for a lot of things nationwide.

In any case, Americans sure consume a ton of oil!

That's actually a pretty, damn good point there. Via deductive educated reasoning, refusing to wear condoms = higher birthrates => less prudishness => less games => women that love to court men for non-superficialities which they seek in men => HIV/AIDS increase possibly.

But what I'm still tripped out about is how come Black Americans seem gung-ho in utilizing condoms yet herpes, HSV, and HIV are not out of control in the Latino-American communities like it is in the Black American commnity yet most Latinos in the USA love it raw/bareback. (Note: Latin American ≠ Latino American)

ladislav · Post by **ladislav** » January 29th, 2011, 2:52 pm

Latino are pretty religious and mostly into families and not into multiple relationships. They have fewer partners and screw around less.

Contrarian Expatriate · January 29th, 2011, 3:00 pm

Nice concept, BUT the factors that contribute to quality of life differ from man to man.

If the factors were:

-Value of US dollars to local currency

-Relative beauty of women to American women

-Ratio of women to men

-Cost of housing

-Percentage of English-speakers

-Months of warm weather.

-Development of tourist industry.

These are the factors that contribute to my quality of life. I could care less about the criteria they used.

djfourmoney · Post by **djfourmoney** » January 29th, 2011, 9:17 pm

LinuxOnly wrote:they site favors the US far too much.

Take a country like Peru or Kazakhstan. Might be great in the city, and really backwards in the country (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but this sways the average to where the country looks terrible to live in, especially if people take really shit care of themselves out of choice, like refusing to wear condoms, binge eating, and playing motoball without helmets, which has nothing to do with poverty like in Africa. Where as is the US is nearly identical for a lot of things nationwide.

In any case, Americans sure consume a ton of oil!

Hmmm...

Africa's troubles are the fault of one set of people and I don't think I need to tell you that. Its still a form of oppression when you don't allow the people to benefit from the natural resources your minding and bought of a couple of easily bought politicians.

Lima, Peru is a major city like any other major city. Can you maintain a Western Standard of living there? Yes but its likely more expensive there even the value of American currency is higher than local money.

I wouldn't consider both places you mention, in the major cities to be backwards, but not modern. In a sense of clean building, sanitized bathrooms, working door knobs, cracked street, basically horrible infrastructure. I think you're talking about backwards culturally and that's not a bad thing, I would beg to differ on some elements of what your saying.

I don't like to argue about extremes and that is what sometimes is covered here. Some say the Western Culture has gone to far and I would agree with that. But the answer is not to turn the clock back to 1950. You also can't blame Europe for the way it is, when it was flatten by Two World Wars, the people demand and got what they wanted, society that works pretty dam is not perfect, nothing is.

If you want a better quality of live, the answer is not visiting some time warp...

odbo · Post by **odbo** » January 29th, 2011, 9:53 pm

i dont think you understood me correctly.

most countries are set up in a "natural" way

during the soviet union many cities in siberia were artificially created, for defense purposes or whatever. a lot of people were forcibly moved to the middle of no where. after the collapse, those people have little promise living in a town that's utterly worthless in terms of self-sustainability or contributing to the free market.
i think the US also had some forcible or at least strategically planned westward expansions but I'm not into american history. Because of todays american society, the sheer arrogance of the anglo-saxon philosophy, everywhere must look identical and have identical things

which is one of the reasons traveling in the US is a waste of time. but i'm not here to bash the blandness of it all.

the level of wealth, medical care,etc is basically the same throughout the country. same in japan or korea probably.
but most countries are not like this at a all. if you travel 10km out of Kabul i'm sure you can travel 200 years back in time. but the statistics of afghanistan are irrelevant to you if you plan to move to the capital city.

ultimately the information given on that site is worthless, and most people already know the approximate general wealth of most countries and you won't know how you'll like the place unless you go and live there for a while.

E_Irizarry · Post by **E_Irizarry** » January 31st, 2011, 6:19 am

"D.R. be 83.33% more likely to have HIV/AIDS"?????

The number of adults living with HIV/AIDS in Dominican Republic is 1.10% while in The United States it is 0.60%.

This entry gives an estimate of the percentage of adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS. The adult prevalence rate is calculated by dividing the estimated number of adults living with HIV/AIDS at yearend by the total adult population at yearend.
Source: CIA World Factbook

-----

"Panama be 66.67% more likely to have HIV/AIDS"????

The number of adults living with HIV/AIDS in Panama is 1.00% while in The United States it is 0.60%.

This entry gives an estimate of the percentage of adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS. The adult prevalence rate is calculated by dividing the estimated number of adults living with HIV/AIDS at yearend by the total adult population at yearend.
Source: CIA World Factbook

Oh fudge! =(

Vicbowling · Post by **Vicbowling** » February 22nd, 2011, 12:27 pm

This is an interesting comparison site but I think that it glosses over some of the quality of life aspects of living in some other countries compared to the USA. I mean, in some countries you may die 2 years earlier than an American but on the other hand, you don't have to freeze your butt off 8 months out of the year too. I think that would be a decent trade-off, die a little younger but live somewhere warm and comfortable. True, in a lot of countries workers earn less but maybe you don't need as much money in those places to have a nice life.

Think Different · Post by **Think Different** » February 22nd, 2011, 3:19 pm

Vic, you're right. This is clearly written from the American bias, in which the GDP of a nation is supposed to be a quantifier of "quality of life". That may or may not be true, as you said. You can be "poor" salary-wise by American standards, but live perfectly comfortably in that nation itself. Perfect example is when I lived in the Czech Republic or Russia, and earned a pittance by Western standards. This only affected me, when I actually traveled to Western Europe on vacation. It was then that I felt like a pauper. Just depends what you want out of life.

Adama · Post by **Adama** » February 22nd, 2011, 4:00 pm

The incomes may be low, but the prices are likely to be low as well. Especially rents. Imported goods are a different story. Even then, you only have to make those purchases once.