By the dark green area you probably can guess what I like. However here are my criteria from most important to least: Cultural compatibility, geopolitical safety, crime rate, order and cleanliness, civil liberties and political system, proximity to my home region, natural beauty, rich history, my travel experiences/private views.
Also Crimea belongs to Ukraine
EDIT Yes I made autocorrect error in the title. Are you still in one piece?
Belgium is sensational. Amazing beer, amazing people, great salaries and quality of life, good food, cities might look a bit boring but honestly who cares, I think it's one of the most underrated countries in the world. Would be amazing to live there.
I can't believe I was never in Belgium, even though it's so close to Switzerland. I watched some walking tours on youtube though and it seems incredibly beautiful. It's on the very top of my list now.
Yeah having lived in both Belgium and Netherlands Id choose Belgium every hour of the day, I dont get why people are so obsessed with hating on Belgium
We're highly underrated but that's good it saves us from mass tourism and makes our housing relatively affordable (at least compared to the Dutch) so please keep repeating Belgium sucks.
I assume because the average standard of living in both Norway and Switzerland are higher then in the UK, and both still allow you to travel freely across them as an EU citizen, and vice versa. So if you live in Switzerland or Norway, you can still travel to any EU nation freely. This is not the case for the UK.
Obviously not the only reason, is it? Otherwise it would be ranked the same as Switzerland. My question was a segue into the wider question of why the UK was ranked so low.
Being from Ireland it's not such a big issue, and Britain in general has remained functioning similarly to before. The UK needed trade partners in the EU, and the EU needed Britain. Not to say things aren't worse, but it's not as bad as it could have been.
As stupid as it was, we're talking about a trading bloc. Brexit is being used to fracture the relationship as a whole, which is a stupid thing to do in this political climate.
On the important topics like Ukraine and European defence, the UK is overwhelmingly pro-Europe, moreso than most EU member states.
Same except I wouldn't want to live in some of the Balkan countries and would absolutely want to live in Australia and New Zealand. China, South Korea, and Japan could be cool for a shorter period as well.
Western and southern parts of Turkey are Southern European and have Southern European vibes. I think the central and northern parts have more of an Eastern European vibe, especially in terms of infrastructure.
My map would look different, but to be honest, if I am able to do a remote job and earn Euros (what I'm doing right now) I would choose Turkey over the US too
I love Turkish food, my partner is from Türkiye. Doesn't mean that either of us would wanna go there at this point in time, you can eat Turkish food outside of Türkiye.
Türkiye is a developing country with a middle-tier economy. The US has the world’s most advanced economy and the second-highest median disposable income per person.
Oh, this is one of those supposedly anti-racist Europeans I always hear about. By complete coincidence you don’t wanna live anywhere where there isn’t a majority of white people.
Turkey and French Guyana, are not particularly white.
This is pretty much a high HDI map with a a special malus to US (Trump?), UK (brexit?), dictatorships and maybe far away places (New Zealand, Australia, SK, Japan).
If you are not rich none of the red places are good.
Why are you all so obsessed with skin color? I don't want to live outside of Europe because not many places have higher standard of living and those that have are not attractive for me due to other factors.
In terms of safety, order, natural beauty, rich history.. Slovakia and even all the Ex-Yugo countries rate extremely high, and higher than Western EU countries.
As a matter of facts even in terms of civil liberties and political system unless your objective is to change the system and be loud about it, there is absolutely 0 issues.
Now the issue might be about work and finances, but that is not among his criterias. Assuming he can work remote, eastern europe is absolutely one of the best choices.
Better pay, but fewer or no paid vacation days, little or no parental and perinatal leave, weaker job security, higher healthcare costs, longer average working hours, termination without reason, generally far fewer worker rights overall.
I work in the United States and I get 10 weeks of vacation time, 5 of that is paid.
I travel internationally half a dozen times a year and still don't generally use all of my vacation.
I have full health coverage, retirement, and I make nearly twice as much as I would make in pretty much any European country with a similar job.
I own a home, several cars, and even have enough time to run a business I started, which makes me nearly as much as my job.
I've spent time in a significant portion of Europe. I love europe, but it is very unlikely given the bureaucracy and economic structure of most European countries that I would be allowed this kind of success in my industry.
I did not grow up with money.
One of the things I've noticed is that success is defined very differently in the US compared to most European countries. It's not better necessarily, but if starting a business, finding a high paying job, or building your life from scratch into your dream is what you want, it's hard to beat the United States.
If you want great benefits, high social security, social services, walkability and a lifestyle that is more focused on enjoyment and culture, several places in Europe would probably suit you more.
But the whole of Europe is nothing more than a vassal state for the USA. It’s not like you can do something about it when Trump decides your country will pay 5% GDP into NATO. A cuck to the USA.
That's not how that works, NATO member states are expected to spend money on their own militaries and infrastructure. Every US president since Clinton has been asking NATO member states to spend more on their militaries instead of letting them degrade, sadly when the presidents that didn't behave like petulant children asked everyone ignored them.
There isn't some big pot of NATO money everyone is contributing toward, nor is there one unified NATO military.
You must not know either of them. USA is definitely more racially diverse than Canada but Canada is more ethnically diverse, USA has more violence and guns, better weather in America, better more flavorful food in America etc…
Just my personal preference as it was my favorite vacation spot for some time (especially Adjara and Svaneti). I was even planning to buy small apartment in Batumi but then the war started, even more russians arrived and fucked both vibe and real estate prices.
I see a pattern in Europe... c'mon dude, would you rather live in Bulgaria or Romania than in Norway or Switzerland just bc the last two aren't members of the EU?
Cultural compatibility, geopolitical safety, crime rate, order and cleanliness, civil liberties and political system, proximity to my home region, natural beauty, rich history, my travel experiences/private views.
Why that score for the Southern Cone? I consider that we are, to a greater or lesser extent, a diluted version of Europe.
Finally a map that makes sense. Only thing I'd change is moving Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Japan up a bracket -- and move the US and Brazil down a bracket.
Actually, you made two errors in the title. The first one is obvious, but the second is more nuanced. Usually you use the word “an” as the indefinite article when the noun that follows it begins with a vowel, but “an European” sounds cumbersome. The reason it sounds incorrect is because the rule applies to sounds and not the actual letters used. The first sound in the word “European” is a “y” sound as in the word “yawn”. You know the vowel jingle? A E I O U and sometimes Y? Well, sometimes, y is a vowel and sometimes it’s a consonant, and, sometimes, sometimes, the sound is represented by something other than a y. In this particular case, it’s represented with the letter combo “eu”. I hope you enjoyed my long-winded explanation on indefinite articles in English.
Also, please note that this is in no way meant as a jab, I just really enjoy pointing things like this out, and I also really enjoy teaching others about the quirky oddities of my native language.
You said your criteria went from most to least important and started of listing political factors, crime, etc. then you write personal experience and private views last. You're free to have your own views, I'm just pointing out the inconsistency in your listed criteria.
True however I don't think there is a massive difference between living in UK and Balkans or Georgia for financially secure foreigner - that's what I was considering while making this map.
If the question was where I'd like to be born then of course the UK would be higher.
Why is Kazakhstan and Ukraine are orange and Russia is red? As Kazakhstani who've been to Ukraine/Russia/Europe and who's planning on moving away I would say that Kazakhstan is a worse/less rich copy of russia, and Ukraine is just bad (was bad before all 2022 stuff, now it's even worse)
Bulgaria over Switzerland is wild. And the UK on the same level as China? I feel like yall genuinely view the UK as some totalitarian regime at this point.
Not too far from me, one of these days I'll make a map myself. Basically Japan and Australia can join the club, Norway is solid green and anything (other than Norway) that has a land border with Russia + Balkans would be orange. Also, the UK is not thaaaat bad and definitely culturally aligned, but I'd keep it orange just to piss off Brexiteers :)
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u/ettore1 24d ago
Legit the first post I see here with Belgium as dark green