Of all the dumb arguments we've had on this forum over the decades, this one might take the cake. It's always fun when lack of any objective analysis is combined with blind patriotism.
So, against my better judgement, I'm going to wade into this and settle it, once and for all, so you can all shut the F up.
Truth is there is no such thing as "the best country in the world". Doesn't exist. Can't exist. The idea is a figment of our imagination.
Simple reasons why:
- There is no single metric to define "best". GDP? Nope. GDP per capita? Nope. Happiness index? Nope. GINI coefficient? Nope. Civil rights/freedoms? Nope. Educational attainment? Nope. Life expectancy? Nope. Any single metric is too limited to define best.
- There are tons of metrics of things we all pretty much universally consider desirable. No single country can be #1 in all of them. So while OAM points out that the US isn't #1 in a lot of these metrics, which is true, that doesn't necessarily answer anything because nobody would expect us to be #1 in everything.
- Even if you could find a collection of "good" metrics and take each country's average position on the list, and declare that country the "best", it still isn't valid. Because "best" requires weighting all the metrics and every person weights them differently. I weight low taxes higher than I weight universal healthcare, because I make a lot of money and have great insurance through my job. Someone who makes $35K/year in a small business and has to buy expensive HDHP insurance on the exchanges probably would value universal healthcare more than low taxes, because his healthcare cost is a much bigger burden than his tax payments.
So unless you can determine the measurable metrics to define "best" up front, and to weight them in a way that everyone agrees on,
you cannot determine the best country in the world.
Now, that doesn't mean that you can't evaluate one country vs another. One way is subjective opinion based on your own inherent weighting. For me, I think the US is at the top of my list. But that might be partly based on having it REALLY good here, probably better in many ways than I'd have it in many other countries. I accept that it's purely subjective.
Another way to evaluate one country vs another would be a more utilitarian approach, the "most happiness to the most people". For example, I think Germany is pretty objectively a better country than North Korea. Obviously there are a few people that are doing better in NK than they'd be doing in Germany (namely Kim Jong-Un and his ruling clique), but for the bulk of the residents, it's a lot better to be in Germany than in North Korea. However, that approach only really makes sense for wide differences. The US vs Canada vs Australia vs France vs Germany vs Sweden vs the UK is a lot harder, because every single one of those countries has positives and negatives and how you weight each personally may FAR overwhelm the differences in "ranking".
America's a pretty good place to live. America is not #1 in everything--no nation can be. America may be the best place to live for some of us subjectively, but I'll bet there are a number of people in America who might find Australia or Canada or Germany to be better for them, but don't want to emigrate and give up their families and friends. Their experience and preferences shouldn't be discounted just because they have different weights on what satisfies them.
So you guys jump down OAM's throat because he has the temerity to point out that there are things where the United States is objectively FAR below #1 as if he hates this country and should leave, which is just stupid, on top of being incredibly rude. Despite the fact that the United States is OBJECTIVELY not the best country in the world at those metrics. And then state that the US is the best country in the world without offering a single metric of why other than your own gut feeling, while telling OAM to claim which country is better despite him already offering objective metrics where other countries are better.
How about we all call it off? The US is a good place to live. A lot of the OECD are good places to live. "Best" is subjective and certain aspects of society in those OECD countries, some which will be better on certain metrics and some which will be worse, is dependent more on how individual people weight those metrics.