Best Places to be Born in 2013

The list includes the USA, eventually

It's too late for you if you're reading this, but Business Insider passes along a list of the "Best Places to be Born in 2013" that may possibly come in handy if you're expecting.

The first ten entries are dominated by old world countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, while the literally lofty mountain country - where almost no US citizens are from - takes the #1 spot. Other English-speaking nations like New Zealand and Australia also place well.

As for the USA, well that ranks 16th, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates and behind Germany.

The rankings look at indicators such as material well-being, government corruption, gender equality, and life expectancy to determine the most desirable places to enter existence in the current year. Of course it should be noted that by the time one reaches adulthood, these rankings may have changed drastically. Indeed, the list notes that in 1988 the US was #1, and France, which now comes in at a lowly 26th place, was the second best location to grow up.

Via Business Insider.

Is this list spot-on to you, or do you take issue with its methodology?

[twinertia]

Change is the only constant. The fact that the list is wildly different should be telling enough.

[Dan_Tien]

"Change is the only constant." That is a truism that has been repeated so often that few even challenge it, but it is wrong. Error is also a constant. That's not mysticism, it's mathematics.

[harold_lloyd]

@Dan_Tien
"Error is also a constant."

That explains a lot about the GOP just now.
But errors can be corrected.

Maybe error is a variable.

[Dan_Tien]

@harold_lloyd The only solution to constant error is constant correction.

[twinertia]

@Dan_Tien Correcting an error would qualify as "change", would it not?

[harold_lloyd]

@Dan_Tien
If that were true, Chet Akin never would have been elected and Bachmann would not have been re-elected.
But it's good to have a goal.

[TheJimmy]

I guess this list means that diversity is highly overrated then.

[methinks]

Not diversity, but multiculturalism. Prior to PC and MC, we were the Great Melting Pot, taking the best attributes of each new group and incorporating them into our society. Just look at how we celebrate Christmas today. It's an amalgamation of many traditions creating a uniquely American form of the holiday.

That isn't the case these days. A primary example is having to "press 1 for English."

[albert]

sounds about right to me

[Ttenneb]

Maybe all the liberals who want to change our country can move to one of these other "great" countries and push their agenda on them ! You can you're president too !

[AndBegin]

Really? You think this all happened over the past 4 years? You are the problem with this country, not the solution. Please leave.

[Ttenneb]

@AndBegin
Really!im the problem! No this just didn't happen over the past 4 years, but the great one said all this crap would be fixed by now , you still have people without jobs, you still have companies leaving, you have a record number of people getting government checks, and Obamacare is on its way, and yes ,
the whole government is the problem! The "great Obama is not going to do anything but be a jet setter and blow our money !

[Cheenoguy]

Or... You people who continue to push for policies that will lead us to #31 in 10 years and us progressives will work with moderates to push us further up the list.

[AndBegin]

@Ttenneb you are blinded by your hate. the government spent our money 4 years ago. at the same pace by the way. look at the numbers, it is all there. jobs were not there 4 years ago and it was getting worse. the whole government is not the problem.

and yes, you are the problem, not the solution.

[Ttenneb]

@AndBegin
You are so right, it's all right there, I don't hate anybody by the way, and it's not my side that say's , "if you say anything about the president, you're a racist, if you're a republican, you're a racist, if you have guns and you don't want the constitution destroyed, oh, then you're a radical, and if you believe the in God, well, then you're a racist, rightwing , gun loving, bible believing piece of garbage that only cares about rich people ! So in closing, the last 4 years have been bad, but the next 4 will be 10 times worse, and the liberals will still close their eyes and keep supporting their savior ,The second coming of Obama !

[TheJimmy]

So we were #1 when Reagan left office then?

[AceLuby]

And have continued his policies of war mongering, deficit spending, no public investment, and low taxes for 24 years...

[WattheTyler]

The American Empire is collapsing.

[AceLuby]

Good!

[RobertJHarsh]

I just don't want the next stop...which will be the Soviet States of America.

[DARSB]

Hmm... Notice the top countries are generally socialist with universal healthcare?

[XLP]

I have lived in many of those. It isn't so great once you grow up and have to pay the taxes for it and wait FOREVER to see a doctor. Incomes even less than $20K USD must pay. Canada has now proposed elderly paying yet another healthcare tax. Plus the new emergency room diagnosis problem in Canada is breaking the system up.It takes a long time to see a doctor, so most people just go to the emergency room. Same thing happened in Germany. I have to admit I do love Sweden - but taxes made living hard. It isn't to bad in underdeveloped and small countries. You dont have anything else to compare it to and people dont eat a lot of sweet foods. But if you are young and healthy it is OK; just very expensive. Oh and dont eat junk and party a lot. They frown on that because the government pays for your habits.

[Medicinebow]

Socialism and healthcare make a country great? I guess individual freedom is way over rated.
Having lived overseas and visited many, many countries i've formed the opinion that I really like it here in the U.S....flaws and all.

[DARSB]

@Medicinebow Totally agree, wouldn't live anywhere else, either. But it is sort of fun to point out to some Politixians who have a serious socialism-phobia that other forms of government are not automatically inferior.

[Vance1]

If you do not care for America, I'll pitch in as others will for your transportation costs
You appear to have lost any American value's that you may of had.
Our country truly doesnt need people with your radical views.
Heck you might even be a terrorist!

[DARSB]

@Vance1 And you might be an Al Qaeda agent sent here to disrupt civil conversations. ;)

[XLP]

Nothing better than the United States. Many countries on that list would not even exist if it was not for the US.

[BelinKS]

Behind Germany? That's pretty bad. The US slipped from 1st in 1988 to behind Germany. That speaks a lot!

[MarkJM]

Under Reagan/Bush the senior, we were #1. Under 0bama, we're #16....just saying....

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

Watch it. They'll label you a racist for speaking the truth.

[honeybadger101]

@Neo_NtheMatrix Couldnt have said it better

[TheJimmy]

It sure seems like once the Baby Boomer Generation started to dominate politics, business, the media, etc. that the country went downhill real fast. Could just be a coincidence.

[whataGOVwehave]

Interesting findings.....thanks baby boomers.....the Reagan way doesn't work these days.

[Keyjo]

I am actually shocked the United States is ranked as high as it is!
Lacking universal health care, sixteen years of public education. Many (most) of us have to work in excess of 8 hours per day, overtime pay has been eliminated. Employers aren't required to give at least 30 days paid vacation annually, or retirement, or even decent pay. The facist-capitalist have made every effort to eliminate the honest, hard working middle class.
The quality of life is no where close to what it was in the hey days (pre Reagan, pre plutocratic,) of the United States.
Yes, I am shocked we achieved 16th.

[Raptor]

Unfortunately it is right, thank's to the GOP!

[mimi57]

These are all very small countries. Switzerland- 8 mill., Sweden-9.5 mill., Norway
at 5 mill., Australia-22 mill.,Denmark-5 .3 mill., Singapore-5 mill., New Zealand at 4.4 million, Netherlands-- 16.7 mill., Canada-35.5 mill., Hong Kong--7.07 mill.

Apparently small governments are able to run more efficiently, and bigger governments are harder to run due to the size. It seems to me, that Republicans
are the ones calling for a smaller government, because smaller is a more efficient
way to run a government and Liberals consistently want a larger, bloated government with more and more entitlements, government interference, etc.

I doubt that it is a coincidence that in 1988 a republican was President. It seems
we have fallen a whole lot since then... maybe the states could be divided, and
those who want a big intrusive government can have their own, and those who want a smaller, less intrusive government can have their own. We'd all be happy.
Maybe then, we'd all be as happy as those in Switzerland,It's the next best thing
to being born there! I'm staying here...

[IMAQT]

"It seems to me, that Republicans are the ones calling for a smaller government" Look at what they do, not what they say. I would be happy if the GOP proposed to freeze the spending, let alone actually cut spending. I know that the GOP controlled house can only do so much, but the fact is that they have controlled the house for 2 years and we still have trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see just like when the democrats were in control.

[mimi57]

@IMAQT A lot of Republicans in congress are 'conservative', but, they aren't
Conservatives...the Country Club Republicans love their Pork, almost as much
as most Democrats. Also, the Republicans never seem to properly explain in
layman's terms, how successful conservatism is, and how Liberal policies always
fail. We are real close to the tipping point to where the number of 'takers' will
far exceed the 'makers', when we reach that point , you can kiss any Fiscally
responsible government goodbye. It's simple math, you can not continue to spend
more than you have. It doesn't work in households, companies or business , and
it will not work until we stop the spending and you can't spend your way out of debt!

[IMAQT]

@mimi57 "Republicans never seem to properly explain in layman's terms, how successful conservatism is, " I agree. Or how we are robbing from our children with deficit spending. Limited government folks need to communicate that every dollar borrowed is a debt our children will have to deal with. It will limit their opportunities. I believe they should bring out the kids as Obama has in the past when we have deficit spending and say we need to stop these policies because it is for the "children". Who in their right mind would support a government financed in large part by our kids? Unfortunately there is a whole bunch. And groups that support a more fiscally responsible budget are labels as extremists here. To me the extremists are the ones financing our government in large part on the backs of our kids, but unformtuantley

[IMAQT]

@IMAQT oppps. but unfortunately they are the majority and have been in Washington and they are both republicans and democrats.

[mimi57]

@IMAQT I agree..

[Grubby]

Falling rapidly thanks to the Liberals. When Obama gets through with us, we will likely be somewhere below China and just ahead of Afghanistan.

[Keyjo]

In other words, right where we were when Bush left office?

[PNWest]

The ignorance shown by the conservatives on this post is beyond belief. All you have to do is look at the healthcare systems in those countries that are doing better than us and see what they do differently? It should come as no surprise that ALL of them have some form of socialized medicine. They pay less and they get better results. Only to a conservative mind could this be a bad thing.

[DyingBreed]

It seems people are taking these stats as an absolute truth, when they are in fact a matter of opinion. The ranking is based on what someone determines to be a high quality of life, and, if that persons view is a liberal one, the most liberal countries would come out on top. This is not evidence of the "success" of liberal policies.

[Keyjo]

Sure it is. The citizens in free world countries enjoy better health care, better education, better working conditions, less stress, less social division; in short, people in free world nation's enjoy a much higher quality of life.

[S-N-A-F-U]

It's been said, that 'Movies' portray the morality, principals and dignity of the era that the film was made. We've gone from "Mayberry, USA" to one of corruption, decadence and immorality....And so it tiz.