Ireland best in world for quality of life

OfflerCrocGod

DadaKopf wrote:

Wait a minute. You think it's easier to measure happiness than wealth?

Yes, there's this new machine that can measure it easily and quickly; it's a probe that is inserted into the subject - rectally with plenty of lube for easing it in - and then takes readings which can be used to calculate the subjects happyness. Since only Bangladeshi were poor and desperate enough to accept the meagre money that was offered by the survey company the complete "Happy List" was actually this:

1) Bangladesh
2) Everywhere Else

This year Bangladesh is expected to win again, although depending on how bad the situation gets in Iraq it's possible that it could be this years "Happiest Place On Earth" It all depends on how much of Iraq the Americans decide to blow up, so this years list could be

1) Iraq, especially fallujah
1) Bangladesh
2) Everywhere Elsed

We await the result with baited breath.

unkel

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

only Bangladeshi were poor and desperate enough to accept the meagre money that was offered by the survey company

LOL, good reminder to always interpret the results of a poll with a pinch of salt

bonkey

Cork wrote:

Never mind that taxpayers are putting €11 billion into health.

Uh-huh. Cause if you did mind, you'd be appalled at how little you get for how much.

jc

pickarooney

I wouldn't be surprised that Bangladeshis came in top of the 'happy' list. I imagine they're far more appreciative of what they do have and not so hung up about what they don't have (see any economically successful country). The happiest people I ever met were in Mozambique, probably in the bottom percentile of any rich-list or tiger-club. Endless wars, floods, food shortages, heavy military presence, but music, laughter and the warmest smiles I ever saw all round. Just happy to be alive I guess.
Rich people are miserable fúckers, when you consider all they have to be happy about.

Bunny

pickarooney wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised that Bangladeshis came in top of the 'happy' list. I imagine they're far more appreciative of what they do have and not so hung up about what they don't have (see any economically successful country). The happiest people I ever met were in Mozambique, probably in the bottom percentile of any rich-list or tiger-club. Endless wars, floods, food shortages, heavy military presence, but music, laughter and the warmest smiles I ever saw all round. Just happy to be alive I guess.
Rich people are miserable fúckers, when you consider all they have to be happy about.

They're happy cos its sunny in mozambique, cos it doesn't ****e down out of the heavens for 9 months of the year over there. Ireland isn't wealthy, we don't have a theme park, I thought it was manditory since the seventies for wealthy countries to have theme parks?

A bunch of guys in suits sat down and looked at a load of figures, they came up with Ireland, I doubt they took the scenic route through summer hill in the slogging rain to buy a sausage roll for e3.75 after their bus was late. Lucky ****ers in Mozambique.

spanner

i think there are too many of these stupid polls and all they are good for is so they can be plastered over the papers

gandalf

Hehehe I really feel sorry for the poor smucks that move here thinking they are coming to some Nirvana with the best standard of living in the world. Imagine how depressed they will be and they won't even get proper treatment cause the health service sucks for the threatment of depression and other such ailments !!!

LOL!!!!

bonkey

bonkey wrote:

Uh-huh. Cause if you did mind, you'd be appalled at how little you get for how much.

jc

True and isn't it ironic that the first union to kick up a fuss about reforms is the one that mainly represents the administrators...

pickarooney

Bunny wrote:

They're happy cos its sunny in mozambique, cos it doesn't ****e down out of the heavens for 9 months of the year over there. Ireland isn't wealthy, we don't have a theme park, I thought it was manditory since the seventies for wealthy countries to have theme parks?

A bunch of guys in suits sat down and looked at a load of figures, they came up with Ireland, I doubt they took the scenic route through summer hill in the slogging rain to buy a sausage roll for e3.75 after their bus was late. Lucky ****ers in Mozambique.

For what it's worth, it pissed rain the whole time I was there. I reckon the floods were a good indication of the kind of extreme weather they put up with as well.

ixoy

Ahhh the Indo has an article about how the Economist came to its conclusions url="http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1292683&issue_id=11726"]link[/url:

[font=Verdana, Arial] A SURVEY which claimed Ireland to be the best place to live in the world brought to bear nine key quality-of-life factors.The factors are material wellbeing, life expectancy at birth, political stability and security, family life (and the divorce rate), community life, climate and geography, job security, political freedom and gender equality.

There was scepticism over the veracity of the 'Economist' survey, which placed Ireland at the head of 111 countries. The Irish Independent has now been given access to the scientific basis on which it was taken. Important considerations besides those listed above were education levels, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and income inequality.

The Economist said Ireland successfully combined most desirable elements of modernity - material wellbeing, low unemployment and political liberty - with those of tradition, including stable family life and a spirit of community. Ireland's scores on these factors outweighed negatives such as health standards, climate and gender equality. There was little correlation between high education and life satisfaction, the magazine said, noting a recent report which found an indicator of schooling and training was inversely related to wellbeing "when jobs are poorly attuned to people's needs and aspirations".

The Economist said life-satisfaction surveys simply asked people how satisfied whey were. "A typical question on the four-point scale used in the EU's Eurobarometer studies is, 'On the whole are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the life you lead?'," it said.

Despite early criticisms on matters such as cultural non-comparability, effects of language differences across countries and psychological factors, tests disproved or mitigated most concerns. "One objection is that responses to surveys do not adequately reflect how people really feel about their life; they allegedly report how satisfied they are expected to be," it said. "But people know very well how satisfied they are."

Responses to life satisfaction queries "tend to be prompt; non-response rates are very low.

"This simple measure of life satisfaction has been found to correlate highly with more sophisticated tests, ratings by others who know the individual, and behavioural measures. The survey results have on the whole proved far more reliable and informative than might be expected," it added.

[/font]Interesting that they just asked us how satisfied we are. Given our love of moaning, were people surveyed honest in this question: "Ah sure, I guess I can't complain it's pretty good" - meaning "Good" got ticked off as a measure of satisfaction?

Material wellbeing - I guess we can mostly say that (we have a fair bit of "stuff"), life expectancy I recall being around the EU average, nothing special. There's certain categories - family life and community - that would seem hard to statistically quantify other than asking an abstract question. It'd be more interesting to get an idea of how those were answered because, it would seem, these were some of the reasons we crept to #1 despite all our eye rolling.

Christian_H

for Truth on the issues go and check out the following thread,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=202382

Sleepy

I was talking with my Dad about this last night over a few pints and to be honest he made me quite ashamed of how high my expectations for life are. He'd fully agree that we must be in the top ten at the very least of quality of life in the world. It's amazing how our priorities and expectations have changed in the last 20 years. When my father was around my age (late 70's / early 80's), true he'd a house, a car and was married. At the time though, he couldn't even consider going out to the pub on a Saturday night, a holiday was a lunatic idea, when they bought the house first it took them over 6 months to finish furnishing rooms with anything more than the basics of furnishing their bedroom, getting kitchen appliances etc. and this was the norm for the time. My parents were both working in the Bank, which at the time was considered a pretty decent job so it was nothing to do wth them being broke, it was simply the way life was. I'm sure some of the older posters here can remember the same things themselves.

Nowadays when a young couple buy their first house, it's beautifully furnished from the get go and the very idea of having to wait a couple of months to buy a kitchen table would be laughable to most of us. It's not that our lifestyle isn't that great, it's that we've been brought up/grown to expect so much more from life.

pickarooney

House prices have skyrocketed while holidays have become cheaper. A worthwhile swap? I personally don't think so.

LFCFan

pickarooney wrote:

House prices have skyrocketed while holidays have become cheaper. A worthwhile swap? I personally don't think so.

Exactly. Ok, so a lot of luxuries are easier to buy now but a lot of this has to do with low interest rates. Irish people have taken on a hell of a lot of debt to afford the lifestyle we see. I don't think we're all that well off if you take away credit. Personal taxes are lower here but I think stealth taxes more than make up for this. I'd be willing to pay more personal tax if it meant I had more disposable income and didn't have to pay through the nose for everything. Cars , holidays, electronics etc etc are easier to buy now but he essentials like housing, health, infrastructure etc etc are still lagging way behind.

bonkey

Sleepy wrote:

I was talking with my Dad about this last night over a few pints and to be honest he made me quite ashamed of how high my expectations for life are.

Why would you feel ashamed?

Given that Ireland as a nation is notionally in far better financial condition than it was when your Dad was around your age, isn't it only correct and reasonable to expect that things would have improved commensurate with our financial condition? Why feel guilty that you expect better service now that its being paid for?

It's not that our lifestyle isn't that great, it's that we've been brought up/grown to expect so much more from life.

How do you work that out? Your dad didn't have the things that you say we're taking for granted. So...how did he bring you up to expect this stuff that he didn't have himself?

The main reason we expect more is because we look at other nations who are comparably wealthy, we look at what they have and we don't and we decide that we should have that because we're just as rich. More correctly, we feel aggrieved that we don't have it, and invariably need to blame someone for doing something wrong as the cause.

Some of that blame is rightly placed, as our Lords and Masters are not perfect. On the other hand, the public of this McAge seem to have forgotten that many things take time, and long-term investment....not just newly-acquired wealth.

Switzerland, for example, doesn't have a fantastic public transport system because its wealthy. It has it because it built it over a hundred years and more, while being wealthy more or less throughout that entire period. The same goes for most other countries and things they have that we want.

We look at what we earn today, and what they earn today, and conclude we should have what they have. The fact that many of these nations have a century (and often far more) of wealth that we are lacking, and it is that investment that we turn a blind eye to.

Don't get me wrong...Ireland should be in better shape then it is. However, it is in far better shape (given its history) than many of its detractors would give it credit for...and much of the complaining is (in my opinion) misplaced.

jc

Sleepy

Because I've grown up as the economy of the country has. Sure I can remember us not having much money as a kid but as I've grown my Father's attained promotions, the country's become better off in general and my expectations for life have grown accordingly...

Why feel ashamed about that? Well, to be honest, I think we've become quite greedy in this McAge, we want it all and we want it last week. Sure, we've plenty of things to bitch about when you look at how woefully mismanaged our tax revenue is but is that really as legitimate a complaint as we as a nation had in the early 80's when there was no work to be had? I think not.

Nuttzz

I'd disagree Sleepy (i'm not on your case today, honest ). It progress really, the country is maturing, we are only 80 odd years an independent state. Its not our fault that the country was poor, a economy has grown and continues to grow thanks in part to the effect we all put in. The state of Ireland now reminds me of the UK in the late 80's early 90's its really just a phase IMO

Sleepy

Nuttzz, I'm not saying we've nothing to complain about, just that we should keep things in perspective and not get overly depressed about the state of the country.

Greenman

I was born in Ireland 1964 and lived there till 1984.
I go to Ireland to see my family and friends.
I miss the sea in Dun Laoire and the mountains in Wicklow but for the rest no thanks!!!
I live in Flemish Belgium in a little village 3km from a M/way that will take me anywhere in Europe.
Car insurance on my 1.7D car is 300E's
I get 65E's tax free to cycle to work.
Lovely cycleways with no glass and well maintained.
Never saw a house alarm on my street.
Nothing was ever touched around my house and its open plan.
I've got 4 satellite dishes in my garden and nothing was ever said by the local council or neighbours.
I've got a Ham radio tower on the side of my house and never had a gurrier try and climb it!!!.
I feel safe here.
The pubs/cafes close when they like!!!
A visitor to the doctor is 18E with a 12E rebate = 6E
Rebates on all prescriptions.
If I want a scan no waiting!!!
No queues for the bank and post with friendly service even if you have workman clothes on.
80% rebate on childcare.
Affordable housing.
Although my pay is not as high as it would be in Ireland the Euro goes much further.
A great recycling facilty close-by and no matter how many trailers of rubble.grass etc I bring its free.
Well I rest my case!!!!
The strange thing is I listen to RTE radio watch RTE TV all the time and spend lots of time on Boards.IE I just can't get away from my roots but I couldn't live back in Ireland.

Lennoxschips

I've lived in Belgium too and am still perplexed that Ireland could finish ahead of it.