Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1949
A number of readers have asked me to update my Best Countries to Live In list. While I haven’t been able to update every index, I have added the Global Freedom Scores produced by Freedom House and incorporated those scores into the overall rankings. The Global Freedom Scores rate people’s access to political rights and civil liberties—ranging from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law— in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report.
The Global Freedom Scores are #13 on my list of indexes For more see my revised list of Best Countries To Live In.
To paraphrase what they say about South Carolina, I would describe my preference for New Zealand as: Too small to be a problem, but too large to be an insane asylum. Besides liking lamb, with a population of only some 5 million, it has some 45 million sheep. I like those stats.
But let’s not exaggerate: in certain nations things are slightly better than in other developed countries. In say Denmark and Norway, life is a little better and citizens live a few years longer.
…and one might add though it is something considered impolite, that in nations such as Denmark and Norway—merely for two examples—there aren’t the intense ethnic disputes we are familiar with. For a reason none too difficult to perceive: less diversity in those nations.
Plus the Scandic countries have evolved for well over a thousand years, and were prodded into modern democratic socialism by WW2. America’s Civil War was a skirmish next to WW2.
The region in the US that has the highest degree of social democracy is New England, because it has evolved continuously since 1620.
At any rate, genuine progressives not willing to emigrate from America would have to think about changing the Constitution, and are going to have to be patient in letting evolution do its Thing.
No doubt the homogeneity of the Scandinavian countries does help them.