Which is the best place in the world to live and work in ?

[mig88]

Wife and me been having this debate ever since I got my PR as to where we should finally settle down job and workwise .We both run sucessful business out of Singapore but not sure if we would like to settle down long term here .Yes taxes are low,but on the upside high property prices ,no season ( I love the cold ) are few of the pros and cons .
Any ideas !!

[This message has been edited by mig88 (edited 02-11-2006).]

[I cannot]

give you any adivce until you reach over that US1,000,000 mark. Until then you are not worthy. I can take my own advice though.

[Oyster World]

I have a better question.  What color do I like best?

[Interesting...]

Finland.

[resm]

If you have the luxury of even entertaining this way of thinking, meaning you have a choice, don't settle down in a way that you can't change later on.

Buy a property where you have "the seasons" and go there whenever you have the time and feel like changing your environment for a while and rent here where your income is coming from.

Buying here does not make sense to me.

This way you have your "own home" somewhere, yet you are still free to choose once you are more sure (and older).

[Impossible Q]

And while we're at it.

What's the best food in the world?
What's the prettiest painting?

Jeez...

[Two choices]

The Arctic or the Antartic.

[Take your pick]

Worldwide quality-of-life index, 2005
Country          Score   Rank
Ireland           8.333      1
Switzerland    8.068      2
Norway           8.051      3
Luxembourg   8.015      4
Sweden          7.937      5
Australia         7.925      6
Iceland           7.911      7
Italy                7.810      8
Denmark         7.796      9
Spain              7.727    10
Singapore       7.719    11
Finland            7.618    12
United States  7.615    13
Canada           7.599    14
N Zealand       7.436    15
Netherlands    7.433    16
Japan              7.392    17
Hong Kong      7.347    18
Portugal          7.307    19
Austria            7.268    20

[The Narcissist5]

If these are the kind of foreign talents singapore is paying top dollar for...

[Dontagree]

As with most things,Im sure the survey is west-centric. Western demands for a better quality of life are TOTALLY different from an Asian's.

We lived in London for many years and expenditure patterns of Westerners vs Asians say it all- Asians go for big apartments, city centre locations ( ie They like the buzz) whereas the latter prefer suburban or bucolic bliss. Asians spend on domestic help and kids education... westerners more on outside entertainment ( bars/restaurants, holidays). This may be a generalization but generally holds true.

Based on that, no Asian would vote for Ireland as providing the best quality of life

[nice]

All that cheap Guinness beer must have been worth a few points.  

[Blargh]

The factors taken into account by The Economists life quality index are:

1) Material wellbeing.
2) Health
3) Political stability and security
4) Family life
5) Community life
6) Climate and geography
7) Job security
Political freedom
9) Gender equality.

The first six being factors Singapore takes pride in, right? Also Singapore ends up 11:th on this list. Not too bad right?

Or are you saying that the last three factors are just western crap?

There are of course other rankings as well. This is another http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Human_Development_Index

[Not Too Bad]

Actually, compared to a lot of the pseudo science that usually gets posted around here this survey seems to be fairly well balanced.

I am not quite sure I buy into the economic well-being dimension as they indicated in the explanation that they don't use a strict GDP or purchasing power guideline.

This means that a person in Singapore who buys a million dollar flat and can only afford one 100,000 dollar toyota "feels" about the same as an American with a 300,000 dollar 4,000 square foot house with two cars and an RV out front.

As an American I don't care where we rank but looking at the list the only place above the US on the list that I would remotely consider immigrating to is Australia.

I am in Singapore as an expat for the money - period.  Immigrate here for a better life?  Fuggedahboudit...

[he he]

ha ha Humptyhump  did you see where Australia is on that list - you know that country you have an OBSESSION  about bagging.  Seems like not everyone feels that way and statistics do not back you up!!!!!!!!

[he he]

It gets better and better. Humpty ..where's Singapore in the Wilkepedia list - ooh number 26, where's Australia, hang on number 3.  

What are the top 3 Asian countries listed??