FOOD FOR THOUGHT

According to USA Today the safest place in the world is Iceland, which ranks number one on the 2022 Global Peace Index. Iceland, with a score of 1.107, has held this position on the GPI for over a decade.

[The United States is ranked 129th.]

The top 10 safest places in the world to live are:

1.   Iceland
2.   New Zealand
3.   Ireland
4.   Denmark
5.   Austria
6.   Portugal
7.   Slovenia
8.   Czech Republic
9.   Singapore
10. Japan

The top 10 safest places to live in the United States are:

1 Vermont

2 Maine

3 New Hampshire

4 Utah

5 Hawaii

6 Massachusetts

7 Connecticut

8 Minnesota

9 Washington

10 Rhode Island

The top 10 happiest places to live in the world are:

1.  Finland
2.  Denmark
3.  Iceland
4.  Switzerland
5.  Netherlands
6.  Luxembourg
7.  Sweden
8.  Norway
9.  Israel
10 New Zealand

For the fifth year in a row, Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings based largely on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll.

The Nordic country and its neighbors Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support in times of trouble, low corruption and high social trust, generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life decisions.

Denmark comes in at No. 2 in this year’s rankings, followed by Iceland at No. 3. Sweden and Norway are seventh and eighth, respectively.

Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg take places 4 through 6, with Israel coming in at No. 9 and New Zealand rounding out the top 10.

Canada (No. 15), the United States (No. 16) and the United Kingdom (No. 17) all made it into the top 20.

[I'm seeing a trend here between cold weather and happiness! OH NO!]

Top 10 smartest countries in the world by IQ:

1.   Japan

2.   Taiwan 

3.   Singapore

4.   Hong Kong

5.   China

6.   South Korea 

7.   Belarus

8.   Finland 

9.   Liechtenstein

10. Germany

[The United States ranks 28th]

Top 20 higher education systems in the world:

1 Finland

2 Japan

3 South Korea

4 Denmark

5 Russia

6 Norway

7 United Kingdom

8 Israel

9 Sweden

10 Hong Kong

11 Netherlands

12 Belgium 

13 Germany

14 China

15 Singapore 

16 Portugal

17 Hungary

18 Estonia

19 France

20 United States

Top  20 countries in health care: 

1.   Denmark

2.   Norway 

3.   Switzerland  

4.   Sweden  

5.   Finland 

6.   Netherlands 

7.   New Zealand  

8.   Germany   

9    Luxembourg  

10. Austria  

11. Iceland  

12. Ireland

13. United Kingdom  

14. Canada  

15. Singapore  

16. Australia  

17. Hong Kong  

18. United States  

19. Japan  

20. Taiwan

[Please note that the United States spends more on Health Care than any other country yet ranks 18th.]  

[Please note that although the United States spends more than any other country on health care its life expectancy is lower than all others.]

Top 10 countries based on disposable income per capita: (identifying how much money a person has available to spend on goods and services after paying their taxes)

1.   United States

2.   Luxembourg

3.   Switzerland

4.   Germany

5.   Australia

6.   Norway

7.   Austria

8.   Belgium

9.   Netherlands

10. Canada

Top 10 wealthiest countries:

1.   United States - $18.62 Tn
2.   China - $11.22 Tn
3.   Japan - $4.94 Tn
4.   Germany - $3.48 Tn
5.   United Kingdom - $2.65 Tn
6.   France - $2.47 Tn
7.   India - $2.26 Tn
8.   Italy - $1.86 Tn
9.   Brazil - $1.80 Tn
10. Canada - $1.53 Tn

Top 10 countries in fire arm-related deaths:

1.  Brazil

2.  United States

3.  Mexico

4.  India

5.  Columbia

6.  Philippines

7.  Guatemala

8.  Nigeria

9.  Iraq

10. Ethiopia

Top 10 countries in drug abuse related deaths:

1.   United States

2.   Canada

3.   Australia

4.   Libya

5.   Nigeria

6.   Estonia

7.   Russia

8.   Cameroon

9.   Arab Emirates

10. Finland

Top 10 countries in alcohol related deaths:

1.   Belarus

2.   Mongolia

3.   Russia

4.   Guatemala

5.   Slovenia

6.   El Salvador

7.   Ukraine

8.   Poland

9.   Latvia

10. Estonia

(The United States ranks 28th in alcohol related deaths)

I think if anyone takes some time to scrutinize these numbers one might come to some alarming conclusions about where they live and how our government spends our tax dollars. This downslide didn't happen overnight. It's been happening for decades. It happened on BOTH sides of the aisles! There was a time when the United States ranked on top of everything including education and healthcare. Now our claim to fame seems to be that we are a military superpower. Yes, that's important, but so are other things. What about poverty and the homeless? We still have starving people in this country. Once our country was a much safer place to live and if I remember correctly people seemed happier and less proned to violence. Children played outside and didn't have to fear for things like school shootings. Now the world is such a fractured place to live. We can't all move to the Nordic countries to find peace and happiness, can we? So what are they doing that we aren't doing? What's the solution? We can't turn back the hands of time, but what we can do is hold the people we vote in office accountable for the state of our union. They are voted there to represent us, the people of this country and it's time they start doing their job and stop fucking around. GET THE JOB DONE!

I AM A LIBERAL

This was circulating on Facebook awhile ago and I thought it was worthy of posting and discussion on my blog:

I am a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of people think it does.

Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected.

2. I believe we should all have access to healthcare. Somehow that's been interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen. It also makes economic sense to me that having decent healthcare is cheaper than ER care.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free, but there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Having these beliefs does not make me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my fair share as long as it's actually going to something besides corporate welfare or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their heads above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I do believe they should have the same rights as you. I believe that love is love, and that you do not get to decide who I should love, or who my brother loves.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc). The system should not be outsourced to profiteers! Private for-profit jails should be eliminated.

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, safe flights, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money will ensure their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. Certainly not right now. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our government has fascist aspects. Not because I dislike our government or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government., except no one should have an automatic weapon or high capacity magazines. What I am interested in is sensible policies, including background checks, that just MIGHT save one person’s, perhaps a toddler’s, life by the hand of someone who should not have a gun.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something with a better profit potential in the future.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

Does anyone care to weigh in on this topic or care to add to it?

*Repost from October 9, 2019