Poll: Newsweek Ranking Countries

[jp201]

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html

Newsweek recently ranked best countries in the world by Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism, and Political Environment.

United States is ranked 11th while Canada is 7th

Finland comes in 1st in terms of best country to live in.


Do you guys think this poll is fair or not?

 

[Lord S. Binkleheimer]

Netherlands Numero 10? Awesome.

 

[Gilhelmi]

USA should have been in the top 5. Also, I had a problem with some of the criteria. It just seemed designed to give the US a lower score. They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Why wouldn't it be fair? They judge the countries based on those four countries and Finland has always been high on the list with few troubles economically and politically.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I have no idea because I don't know what numbers they're basing this on.

I can see where they came up with their idea of best overall nation, but I'm sentimental and prefer other countries.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Seems pretty fair to me, assuming their sources are correct.

 

[Furious Styles]

UK 14? I'll take that.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

UK isn't the worst. Woohoo.

Not sure why we apparently have a worse political environment than Italy.

 

[Sonicron]

Germany's ranked 12th... oh well, could be worse, I guess. Quality of life's looking good at 7th. ^^

 

[Furious Styles]

They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

Aside from the fact that loads of countries have most of those freedoms and some more to boot, and all the countries ranked above the US are examples of those countries.

 

[dex-dex]

maybe Finland is looking for a new Canadian immigrant?

 

[dex-dex]

They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

Aside from the fact that loads of countries have most of those freedoms and some more to boot, and all the countries ranked above the US are examples of those countries.

i agree i shall use Canada as an example we allow gay marriage and gay adoption
many states do not.

 

[Blaster395]

USA should have been in the top 5. Also, I had a problem with some of the criteria. It just seemed designed to give the US a lower score. They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

All the countries in the top 20 had exactly the same, if not better freedoms that America, its annoying when people do not realize that there are more democratic countries than just America.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

USA should have been in the top 5. Also, I had a problem with some of the criteria. It just seemed designed to give the US a lower score. They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

Maybe you could share with us, the ignorant and unwashed unfree masses, what those freedoms are?
14th, not bad but I don't agree with the UKs political environment score. It should be much higher than that.

 

[unoleian]

USA should have been in the top 5. Also, I had a problem with some of the criteria. It just seemed designed to give the US a lower score. They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

That...was a pretty uninformed statement to make. And, keep in mind, I live here. I did not see anything wrong with that ranking. You're either quite young, or quite brainwashed.

---

I LOL'ed at the "economic dynamism" being so high, not because of it being high, but I keep getting flashing images of the rollercoaster that is our economy, and that it is certainly VERY dynamic. Heh.

 

[octafish]

Number 4? This despite being politically influenced by a bunch of xenophobes from Western Sydney and Queensland? Not bad Australia, now can we be nicer to the oppressed?

 

[seditary]

Number 4? This despite being politically influenced by a bunch of xenophobes from Western Sydney and Queensland? Not bad Australia, now can we be nicer to the oppressed?

Indeed, I was rather surprised with our placing.

Maybe its just cause we don't get as worked up about those things as other countries so we got rated higher.

In fact this comes out in our political participation rating of 7.78 out of 10 despite having mandatory voting.

 

[Good morning blues]

USA should have been in the top 5. Also, I had a problem with some of the criteria. It just seemed designed to give the US a lower score. They did not take into account the freedoms that America has that the other countries do not have.

...Freedoms like what? I guess you could say that the US has the advantage of low taxation, but that is a very subjective measure whereas measurements of quality of education or economic health are less so.

The only thing that really surprised me here from my brief look was how well Australia did, especially under "political culture." I'd be very interested to see how they operationalized that concept.