Country Size Vs the Good Life! Fight!

[dv8nation]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0108/1224328563655.html

A recent study has listed the best countries to born in as of right now.

1 Switzerland

2 Australia

3 Norway

4 Sweden

5 Denmark

6 Singapore

7 New Zealand

8 Netherlands

9 Canada

10

Comments

[geezer_also]

Perhaps I should have used the word "collective" (as opposed to individuality).
Perhaps some nuance is lost in the translation, and I suffer by only being reasonably fluent in one language; however, when (as stated) one becomes an American and they become different (in this case an individual) it is implied that they were different before. Now, perhaps using "hive mind" was a passive-aggressive bait word, but it was more sub conscious than not (altho to be fair, if I would have thought about it, I prly would have used it anyway).

To answer your question: I really don't know. I try not embrace sweeping, negative, stereotypical generalizations of any group (even Americans).I have only spent 3 days total in Europe, and all of the Europeans (and Asians, and Africans) that I know personally have come to America to become Americans (altho I do know several Brits and a South African that are "Royalists") so that kinda taints them. Bottom line what I think is that "simplistic generalizations" cut both ways, most of them are B.S. and that's a generalization you can take to the bank ;-)

[abomvubuso]

Having seen lots of places and lots of people in my rather short life so far, I tend to agree with you. There are a myriad of people with a myriad of backgrounds and stories, and generalisations seldom work. On the other hand, there are specific traits that distinguish one society from another, and if we go beyond the individual stories of the people that make up a society, I'm sure you'll agree we can detect some characteristics of a society (as in, a society as a whole) that distinguish it from the next one. I suspect that's the purpose that's being intended whenever someone does what you call throwing a simplistic generalisation. Are they simplistic? Sure! But the alternative is spending hours upon hours in explaining a phenomenon as complex as a society, and I'm afraid none of us has the time to go into such detail.