h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

have researchers experienced what they consider the fairest political system, stablest economy, most honest government etc?

I've heard New Zealand is pretty good, can you corroborate this?

Canada used to be. We were created by refugees from the lawless mob rule of the American revolution. For two hundred years we maintained British common law, and a sense of 'fair play'. We became the first nation of the old Empire to achieve independence with responsible elected government.
In the sixties and seventies Canada was always ranked first or near the top of the UN's 'best countries', highest standard of living, safest, cleanest, healthiest...
Then Ronald Regan became President of the US and the selfishness of the Eighties brought the global expansion of American corporations. Profit became the only motive for existence. Cable television brought the Yankee way of life into our living rooms and we bought into into it big time. Well, not bought, fact is we sold our souls.
peace
~jwf~ (gonna build a little log cabin in the hills of Jamaica)

I've just been working in Sweden, and found it a very strange country. It used to be the shining example of socialism working in the world. The trains and buses run to time. The cities are clean. There are no drunks or drug addicts on the streets. There is minimal graffitti. People work 35 hour weeks, and get several weeks of summer holiday, incredible unemployment insurance (80% of their wage in some cases). They benefit from pensions and social medicine. The kids on the tills in supermarkets all speak perfect English, and so do the bus drivers. The girls are blonde the men are tall.

And guess what?

It scares the living s**t out of me!

I am the ONLY person in the whole country who laughs out loud in public.

There is no sense of customer service. Coke machines are empty or have Pepsi in them, what you get out bears no relationship to what it says on the lable by the button. Taxi companies will say "We have no drivers in that area - call back later". Managers in corporations will defer taking decisions past the point of danger.

There is no spirit of enterprise or entrepeneurism. Anyone setting up a business is strangled by red tape or dragged back by inertia.

I could go on, but I actually like most of the Swedish women I have met, (with one notable exception), and I do not want to offend them. I find their country frustrating and baffling in equal portions. And I am going back there on Monday...

a xenophobic Brit called Ben

This very interesting subject has fallen to page four of 'other conversations' so I'm posting to kick it back to the front of the line, hoping others who may have missed it will offer some other points of view.
peace ~jwf~

I'm Canadian too. What jwf says about our selling out to American globalisation is true but I still think Canada's the best Country to live in because the same rampant capitalist madness is turning human society into a huge Darwinian experiment everywhere. The US is gridlocked with greed and the 3rd world is ghettoised by American exploitation. I think if I'm a lab rat at the bottom of the entrepreneurial pecking order I'm better off right here where I am.
Although they say Europe is dodging and bobbing and weaving nicely this time of year.

well on the topic of New Zealand...

Am I wrong or did they ban all nuclear stuff from entering during the cold war? And now they're getting rid of their military? AND they have a female PM, something oz hasn't managed yet...

about the stable economy: When I was visiting relatives there last, two men showed us a 50 cent coin they had accidently snapped in half. You've got to wonder about that...

bit sad that the ANZAC thingy will be no more

the new zealand system is interesting. we had our budget out last week and they did a pretty graph in the paper to show where the money goes. about 20 stacked coins went to welfare, 4 coins to education and 2 coins to police. i think defence got 0.5 of a coin. we have some incredibly bright entreprenerial people here, but far to many leave to make some real money in another country. plus we have a wonderful habit of selling off our assets. i love it here but think a few things need changing. globilisation is killing us.

nz really is not that great, politically - but then i would say that, as a rabid leftie

we had a post-war consensus about the welfare state, education, health, etc - and we adopted a nuclear free policy in the 1980s - but since then things have changed majorly, resulting in a massive redistribution of wealth to the rich - privatisations of state assets resulted in huge benefits for a few and generally increased costs for the rest of us (and, with the possible exception of telecom, the service has not improved - ever tried to get back the credit from your power account?)

i could rant about this at length, but the thing the concerns me the most is the lack of (warning, naff buzz word ahead) empowerment here - there's a real lack of participation in politics and the like - i think a lot of people at the bottom are too busy surviving to get involved in making change

ok i'm going to stop now before i get moderated!!!

span

ugh.. privatization.. well we (oz) did elect a conservative government, what did we expect? the Govt now owns only 51% of Telstra (previously telecom). I don't want to rant either, but you just feel so powerless when they sell off the assets.

What happened to ANZAC day?

an ignorant pom called Ben

oh no, I didn't mean ANZAC day has gone (some people here reckon it should replace Australia day) what I mean is, if NZ doesn't have any military, we can't join and be anzacs together (in peace-keeping roles I guess). I'm pretty ignorant on the subject myself really.

Anzac biscuits are really nice... (?!)

Anzac day gets bigger every year here (nz) - thousands attend dawn ceremonies including every increasing numbers of young people - it has transformed from a celebration of winning the war to a reminder of the horrors of war (lest we forget) which is great

hey we will have an army, and a navy, just not much of an airforce - besides NZ actually made money out of cancelling the skyhawk deal (and ended "masculinist philosophies of defence" )

yeah ANZAC day gets bigger here every year two, except its never been about winning the war - its on the gallipoli landing day here. And its got this whole identity tag - Aust became a nation, baptism of fire in 1915 with gallipoli - and of course we get to blame the poms for the screw up (as much a part of our identity as anything else ). Its quite sad that we just focus on australia and not new zealand as well though.

>>hey we will have an army, and a navy, just not much of an airforce<<

ah, okay, the legend lives on!!

of course my mate les and his two friends will be the army and the navy will double as cruise ships in downtime but it's the principle that's important damnit!!