The world's best country

coastal · Post by **coastal** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:39 am

Ireland's ranking is largely due to it apparently being one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Nowadays it is consistently in the top 3 or 4 countries for GDP per head alongside Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland etc.
However this is largely an illusion.
Ireland is currently a bubble economy, and the bubble is big and about to burst. Euro entry has lead to artificially low interest rates which have created an enormous credit and spending boom. The average house price in Dublin is now over 450.000 euros which must be something stupid like 12 times average salary. People believe what the media tell them and the media tells them that property prices will go up and up and up forever. So they take out ever larger mortgages and even more debt. But as the ECB gradually raises interest rates over the next few years as growth picks up in Germany, the speculators realise the days of 20%+ a year price rises are over and the Irish property market crashes as it surely will then the Irish economy is going to be in serious trouble. Just watch it slide down the rankings...

pepitopulpito · Post by **pepitopulpito** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:43 am

coastal wrote:Ireland's ranking is largely due to it apparently being one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Nowadays it is consistently in the top 3 or 4 countries for GDP per head alongside Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland etc.
However this is largely an illusion.
Ireland is currently a bubble economy, and the bubble is big and about to burst. Euro entry has lead to artificially low interest rates which have created an enormous credit and spending boom. The average house price in Dublin is now over 450.000 euros which must be something stupid like 12 times average salary. People believe what the media tell them and the media tells them that property prices will go up and up and up forever. So they take out ever larger mortgages and even more debt. But as the ECB gradually raises interest rates over the next few years as growth picks up in Germany, the speculators realise the days of 20%+ a year price rises are over and the Irish property market crashes as it surely will then the Irish economy is going to be in serious trouble. Just watch it slide down the rankings...

I didn't know that Alan Greenspan was hidden after Coastal...

coastal · Post by **coastal** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:52 am

pepitopulpito wrote: I didn't know that Alan Greenspan was hidden after Coastal...

Alan Greenspan is an evil capitalist who is indirectly going to cause world war three by leading the US towards bankrupcy (by instigating Bush's sick economic policies) US debt. When the US goes bankrupt it will have no choice but to declare war and invade just about any country with enough natural resources to make it profitable.

I however am a peace-loving Marxist.

(Sorry, off-topic)

pepitopulpito · Post by **pepitopulpito** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:54 pm

Ups... Excuse me...

coastal · Post by **coastal** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:22 pm

Don't worry, pulpito, just kidding.

Fjon · Post by **Fjon** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:55 pm

coastal wrote:Ireland's ranking is largely due to it apparently being one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Nowadays it is consistently in the top 3 or 4 countries for GDP per head alongside Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland etc.
However this is largely an illusion.
Ireland is currently a bubble economy, and the bubble is big and about to burst. Euro entry has lead to artificially low interest rates which have created an enormous credit and spending boom. The average house price in Dublin is now over 450.000 euros which must be something stupid like 12 times average salary. People believe what the media tell them and the media tells them that property prices will go up and up and up forever. So they take out ever larger mortgages and even more debt. But as the ECB gradually raises interest rates over the next few years as growth picks up in Germany, the speculators realise the days of 20%+ a year price rises are over and the Irish property market crashes as it surely will then the Irish economy is going to be in serious trouble. Just watch it slide down the rankings...

Nobody with any amount of common sense here doubts that the bubble will burst, especially as regards the ridiculous housing situation in Dublin. We're just trying to enjoy the ride while it lasts, and hope the come-down won't be too severe!

Van Geel · Post by **Van Geel** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:24 am

pepitopulpito wrote:I can't believe that you can live better in Iceland than in Spain, Portugal, Greece or Italy...!!!
Maybe it's possible that Ireland is a nice place, but me, personally, I wouldn't be able to live without sun, raining all the time...
And Scandinavia, of course they are the head of the world in politic stability, order, infraestructures, money and all that stuff, but a pleasant place to live maybe in spring-summer, but in autumn-winter it must be HAAAAARD.
But, anyway, places where at eight o'clock you have nothing to do but being in a pub, like all those ... those aren't nice places to live.

Maybe we're a little disordered and chaotic, but anyway, ¡¡¡SOUTHERN POWER!!!Southern Europe is where you really enjoy your life, that's why all Europe comes here whenever they have free time (because of it and because of the beach, of course)...

Maybe we shouldn't be the first in the ranking... in my opinion maybe Australia has a nice equilibrium betweeen "order" and quality of life... they would be fair winners for me

And what about France in 25?!?!?! I'm sure now that whoever made this ranking didn't take into account the food...

I don't think climate was one of the things that counted for this research to point out the best country to live in. But I can imagine that you are dreaming of a cool northern-European breeze during hot summertime in Spain.

pepitopulpito · Post by **pepitopulpito** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:53 am

Van Geel wrote:I don't think climate was one of the things that counted for this research to point out the best country to live in. But I can imagine that you are dreaming of a cool northern-European breeze during hot summertime in Spain.

In fact, climate was one of the things that counted on this research...

"The main factor is income, but other things are also important: health, freedom, unemployment, family life, climate, political stability and security, gender equality, and family and community life. We feed the factors into the equation..."

Anyway, I prefer cool countries in summer only because it is the best way to make tourism (and get some notes out there

). But I combine it with a trip to the beach, enjoying the superb Mediterranean/Adriatic/Cantabric... (southern seas in general) climate. And anyway, this is a study about living, not about holidays countries...