Best Place to be born 2013 -Ireland 12th

WesternZulu · 30-11-2012 12:14PM #1

The Economist has recently published the best places to be born in 2013:

http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life

1. Switzerland
2. Australia
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Singapore
7. New Zealand
8. Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Hong Kong
11. Finland
12. Ireland

16.Germany
=16. USA

25.Japan
26. France
27. Britain
28. Spain

80. Nigeria

Following Ireland coming 11th in the global ranking of education systems discussed in AH this week it seems that this country isn't a half bad place to live at all despite all the cries of self loathing that goes on in here at time.

The Economist also states Ireland's GDP per capita as $45,140. Now I know there is a lot of personal debt in this country but that is a case not unique to ourselves and come 9th in Europe (only behind Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the four Scandinavian countries).
It should be noted, we have a higher GDP per capita than that of Germany, France, and Britain.

I am sick to death of a lot of the contributors in AH depicting Ireland as some sort of sh*thole floating at the edge of Western Europe with not a prayer in the World.

Ireland's not a bad little country, a bit of positivity wouldn't go a miss...could be worse, you could be in Nigeria.

pcardin · 30-11-2012 12:16PM

OMG how little they need to buy you

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 12:55PM

France and Britain are bizarrely low. I'm not sure what categories Ireland could beat either in.

jester77 · 30-11-2012 01:00PM

pickarooney wrote: »

France and Britain are bizarrely low. I'm not sure what categories Ireland could beat either in.

Irelands generous social welfare would be one.

Ghandee · 30-11-2012 01:01PM

username like that slagging off Nigeria:D

OneArt · 30-11-2012 01:14PM

That's stupid.

Why do they think being born in a country means you'll be living there for most of your life?

Leftist · 30-11-2012 01:22PM

another validation of national self esteem via an internet poll that solves nothing.

we're great at this. One poll said Ireland had the best standard of life about 5 years ago. Even though our hospitals and public transport infrastructure for example were a joke in comparison to the usual E.U standard.

80k approx emigrated in 2011. We are being held up by foreign money otherwise our arse would fall out. Our country consists of sprawling, poorly built and over expensive housing estates with poor amenities.

'but at least we're not nigeria'

LivelineDipso · 30-11-2012 01:34PM

I spend a lot of time in France and have lived there. It is on every possible level a far more eqalitarian and progressive society than Ireland. The public services are incredible. Everything works there. Most people seem healthy and happy. Ireland being rated above France is such pish!

The USA is only a good place if you have a good job. Otherwise you're left to die.

The UK is an a very unhappy country I find.

LivelineDipso · 30-11-2012 01:35PM

some reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5zXU1bQ3tQ

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 02:09PM

jester77 wrote: »

Irelands generous social welfare would be one.

I'm depressed that that's considered a reason for an adult in hard times let alone for a new born baby.

Blisterman · 30-11-2012 02:22PM

Well social welfare doesn't just benefit the people on it, more importantly it provides a reassurance to people that they will be looked after if they hit hard times.

Tombi! · 30-11-2012 02:27PM

Education is a reason? I think they should spend their time going to through the joke of a system we have.

Rented Mule · 30-11-2012 02:30PM

There are only 80 countries in the world ?

Who did this list ....Sarah Palin ?

Blisterman · 30-11-2012 02:32PM

For those interested the criteria they looked at:

material wellbeing as measured by GDP per head (in $, at 2006 constant PPPS); life expectancy at birth; the quality of family life, based primarily on divorce rates; the state of political freedoms; job security (measured by the unemployment rate); climate (measured by two variables: the average deviation of minimum and maximum monthly temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius; and the number of months in the year with less than 30mm rainfall); personal physical security ratings (based primarily on recorded homicide rates and ratings for risk from crime and terrorism); quality of community life (based on membership in social organisations); governance (measured by ratings for corruption); gender equality (measured by the share of seats in parliament held by women).

Obviously there are a lot of flaws in this, but I do think Ireland's a pretty great place to live.

conorhal · 30-11-2012 02:33PM

Leftist wrote: »

another validation of national self esteem via an internet poll that solves nothing.

we're great at this. One poll said Ireland had the best standard of life about 5 years ago. Even though our hospitals and public transport infrastructure for example were a joke in comparison to the usual E.U standard.

80k approx emigrated in 2011. We are being held up by foreign money otherwise our arse would fall out. Our country consists of sprawling, poorly built and over expensive housing estates with poor amenities.

'but at least we're not nigeria'

It's all part of the 'superior inferiority complex' the we so enjoy.
The only thing that excites us more then a scratch behind the ears from from Merkel and hearing how we are the 'best little country in the world!', is the opportunity for self flagilation and bemoaning what a dreadful bunch of backwards, parochial eejits we all are when some report names us the worst at something...
.......calling Nodin, come in nodin, we need some self loathing to balance out a potential outbreak of positivity on Boards!

BlatentCheek · 30-11-2012 02:54PM

I don't set much store by these surveys

The one by the Economist Intelligence Unit about five years ago saying Ireland was the best (or was it nearly the best?) place to live in the world was the same. They followed it with a special report on cities the next month that ranked Dublin next to Detroit in terms of quality of life. When nearly half of Ireland lives in the greater Dublin region it makes you wonder about the first report.

Also, I don't want to go all tinfoil hat but the Economist has a clear and acknowledged agenda that favours business interests, light regulation, low taxes etc etc; I don't think it's a coincidence that this report doesn't factor in, at least according to blisterman, access to good public services, be that in education, health, transport or any of the areas that most western european countries surpass us.

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 02:59PM

Blisterman wrote: »

For those interested the criteria they looked at:

material wellbeing as measured by GDP per head (in $, at 2006 constant PPPS); life expectancy at birth; the quality of family life, based primarily on divorce rates; the state of political freedoms; job security (measured by the unemployment rate); climate (measured by two variables: the average deviation of minimum and maximum monthly temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius; and the number of months in the year with less than 30mm rainfall); personal physical security ratings (based primarily on recorded homicide rates and ratings for risk from crime and terrorism); quality of community life (based on membership in social organisations); governance (measured by ratings for corruption); gender equality (measured by the share of seats in parliament held by women).

Obviously there are a lot of flaws in this, but I do think Ireland's a pretty great place to live.

Yeah, I'm not seeing where Ireland beats its European neighbours on any of those, unless you count the artificially low divorce rates which don't really indicate happy family lives. I mean, I understand that Ireland should score highly in these areas compared to most of the world, but I honestly don't see how it ranks higher than most of Western Europe. On climate alone it should lose 20 places, 15% unemployment should see it near the bottom on that meter and the life expectancy is the same as anywhere else in the developed world.

Blisterman · 30-11-2012 03:05PM

Well. Ireland's got a very low crime rate, high GDP per capita, a moderate climate, low corruption (I'm going to get some flack for ths, but it's true), a high level of political freedom and a lot of involvement in social organisations.

And most of the countries ahead of it are in Western Europe.

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 03:14PM

Blisterman wrote: »

Well. Ireland's got a very low crime rate, high GDP per capita, a moderate climate, low corruption (I'm going to get some flack for ths, but it's true), a high level of political freedom and a lot of involvement in social organisations.

And most of the countries ahead of it are in Western Europe.

The homicide rate (it's apparently based largely on this, the other factor mentioned is some vague, unmeasurable metric) is equal to the UK, fractionally higher than France and a smidgin less than Somalia.

It has one of the wettest climates in Europe. I couldn't work out if its being cold is a good or a bad thing according to their measurements but it's hard to see how it's objectively better than anywhere else.

It has a high GDP, but a concomitantly high cost of living which seems nonsensical to overlook.

On corruption Ireland is again worse than the UK, marginally higher than France.

On political freedom I would concede that the requirement for a referendum for any constitutional change works in Ireland's favour, regardless of whether the results are respected.

I've no idea about the social organisations or how they arrive at a figure for it. This could be an area where Ireland scores high but I'm not sure why.

30-11-2012 03:21PM

Its good to see a thread going against the absolute drivel a lot of people are constantly posting in AH about how awful Ireland is and how they cant wait to leave. I'm sick to the teeth of morons raving on about how they cant wait to leave, I'll be glad to see the back of them anyway.

Ireland is a great place to live and people who moan about it either don't realise it or have some false idea of what its like to live in other places.

One great example is constantly referring to corruption when running down the country while as corruption goes Ireland is not bad at all.

Another gem is that all our skilled workers are having to leave for work, there are no doubt areas where its tough to get work, construction being one, but highly skilled jobs which are not one of them. In my line of work there are people coming to Ireland from other countries to work, its known as a great country and a great place to work and there are better opportunities here than in a lot of the countries Irish people are running off to.

I can already see the people in this thread that will look for every excuse to rubbish the report, there are people in AH that would swear black was white in order to spew their anti-Ireland agenda.

FloatingVoter · 30-11-2012 03:29PM

A good social welfare net should you need it.
A comparatively good health service (don't get pregnant or sick on weekends).
No volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis nor other biblical crap.
Discounting Irish, a good education system if you want it.
A dependably corrupt breed of politician (not Mugabe or Putin level, but nevertheless open to friendly bribes).
A complete lack of organised religion (even though we'll say otherwise in the census).
Jedward.
Daniel.
Twink.

Yeah, we're ticking along nicely.

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 03:32PM

FloatingVoter wrote: »

A good social welfare net should you need it.
A comparatively good health service (don't get pregnant or sick on weekends).
No volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis nor other biblical crap.
Discounting Irish, a good education system if you want it.
A dependably corrupt breed of politician (not Mugabe or Putin level, but nevertheless open to friendly bribes).
A complete lack of organised religion (even though we'll say otherwise in the census).
Jedward.
Daniel.
Twink.

Yeah, we're ticking along nicely.

This really only explains why Ireland is higher than the likes of Haïti or Gabon.

FloatingVoter · 30-11-2012 03:33PM

pickarooney wrote: »

This really only explains why Ireland is higher than the likes of Haïti or Gabon.

Knock the last three monkeys off my list and I could have been referring to the UK (sub in 3 of theirs).

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 03:35PM

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Knock the last three monkeys off my list and I could have been referring to the UK (sub in 3 of theirs).

So Twink, Daniel and Jedward are worth 15 places on their own? :pac:

Madam_X · 30-11-2012 04:10PM

pickarooney wrote: »

France and Britain are bizarrely low. I'm not sure what categories Ireland could beat either in.

More relaxed pace of life perhaps?

It's true that not being as bad as Nigeria or wherever is not a boast, but it is a fair point here on Boards when Ireland is spoken of as being as bad as Nigeria. The little emos who enjoy such freedoms and comforts here haven't a clue.

Those who feel Ireland is too bigged up... well there are plenty of self flagellators to balance it out. Most people are rational though and view it as not the best but not the worst.

WanabeOlympian · 30-11-2012 04:13PM

Great positive new story op. Thanks for that! I love my country

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 04:14PM

Madam_X wrote: »

More relaxed pace of life perhaps?

It's not something you can really put a figure on though. Maybe average commuting times or something, although they don't list it as a criterion.

It's true that not being as bad as Nigeria or wherever is not a boast, but it is a fair point here on Boards when Ireland is spoken of as being as bad as Nigeria. The little emos who enjoy such freedoms and comforts here haven't a clue.

Those who feel Ireland is too bigged up... well there are plenty of self flagellators to balance it out. Most people are rational though and view it as not the best but not the worst.

The Economist didn't put this together with the purpose of saying 'Suck it, AH, Ireland is the ѕhit', though. This is supposedly a rationally calculated index with no obvious promotional motive.

H3llR4iser · 30-11-2012 04:34PM

Sorry to say this, but a lot of people have no idea what they are talking about; Especially some claims about education, cost of living and taxation being supposedly terrible are quite wrong.

To make a long story short, if Ireland was that bad there wouldn't be so many Europeans living and working here - including myself.

Crime...funny how some people cling to statistics to claim Ireland to be a cesspit; In truth, statistics lie a little bit, especially when only the ones about homicides are considered. Go around the outskirts of Dublin or Cork, and you'll see countless houses with no gates and a flimsy wooden main door; Go around Italy and you'll see residential complexes enclosed in tall gates, spiked fences and armoured doors and windows everywhere. Wonder why...

pickarooney · 30-11-2012 04:44PM

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Sorry to say this, but a lot of people have no idea what they are talking about; Especially some claims about education, cost of living and taxation being supposedly terrible are quite wrong.

To make a long story short, if Ireland was that bad there wouldn't be so many Europeans living and working here - including myself.

Is anyone in this thread saying that Ireland is that bad, though? Are people not just questioning if it's really that good, compared with lower-ranked countries who would seem to match, if not beat Ireland on every score? You seem to be fabricating an argument to refute.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 30-11-2012 04:45PM

How could they know if nobody's been born in 2013 yet?

ToddyDoody · 30-11-2012 05:26PM

I heard it was Cork that brought us right up on the ratings.

Best Place to be born 2013 -Ireland 12th

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