TIME’s Best Places to Live Does Not Include Any in the USA
TIME has one of those lists that we always start to see as the year comes to a close. This one is the top ten best and worst places in the world to live. Sadly, there isn’t a single place in the U.S.A. on that list.
The worst place to live on this list is, unsurprisingly, the disaster-prone (both man-made and natural-made) country of Haiti. Neither Yemen nor Iraq fare much better than Haiti. The rest of the top ten worst list is filled out with African nations — again, unsurprisingly.
But it’s the best-places list that disappoints the red, white and blue as not one of the best places in the world in which to live are in the good ol’ U. S. of A.
The “Best Quality of Living” list is:
- Vienna, Austria
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Munich, Germany
- Vancouver, Canada
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Bern, Switzerland
What is the deal? Why does this list diss the United States? In fact, the USA doesn’t even appear in the top 25 best places.
The first U.S. city doesn’t appear on the full “best” list until the 28th spot (Honolulu, Hawaii). The other U.S. cities in the top 50 are San Francisco (29th), Boston Mass. (35th), Chicago, Illinois (42nd), Washington D.C. (43rd), New York City, New York (44th-tied), Seattle, Wash. (44th-tied), and Pittsburgh, Penn. (49th).
Sadly, in this day and age, we find ourselves torn over a list like this. I mean, with as bad as the age of Obama has gotten, perhaps we should not be surprised that we didn’t make the top ten list.
On the other hand, this is TIME magazine we are talking about. We’d be hard pressed to imagine that any list reported upon by TIME would ever hold the U.S. in very high regard.
So, what are the criteria for this thing, anyway? Well, the list was compiled by the New York City-based consulting firm Mercer and they claim that they measure the following ten categories:
- Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
- Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services)
- Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)
- Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc.)
- Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)
- Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transportation, traffic congestion, etc.)
- Recreation (restaurants, theaters, movie theaters, sports and leisure, etc.)
- Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc.)
- Housing (rental housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)
- Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters
Though some of these categories are awfully subjective — I mean, availability of theaters? Seriously? — in the era of intrusive big government, with our destroyed Obama economy, and with the increasing big brotherism indulged by our various governments, local, state and federal, I can see why we are losing ground in measures of freedom.
In any case, there are mixed emotions with this list. It is maddening all the way around that the U.S.A. does not at all figure prominently on a list of the best places in the world in which to live.
Shortlink:
Posted by Warner Todd Huston on December 12, 2012.Filed under Barack Obama, corruption, Culture Of Corruption, Economics, Liberals, Media.
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, RightPundits.com, StoptheACLU.com, Human Events Magazine, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events.He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions, EMAIL Warner Todd Huston: igcolonel .at. hotmail.com"The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it." --Samuel Johnson
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Pingback: TIME Tips It’s Hand To What It’s Real Standards Are | Daily Pundit