i'm impressed the USA made it that high. I expected them to be well down the list.

Not sure why Americans *believe* they are the epitome of democracy and freedom,no one outside of America believes that about them!

I agree with netean second sentence. I didn't expect it to be much more down than that, though I'm surprised USA is ranked better than many EU countries such as France, Belgium and Portugal, but I'm not an expert.

Lol to notice that the first ranked among latin countries is Spain at #16, the top ones are all either Scandinavian or Anglosaxon.

I wonder why Malta was included, since it's so small.

Btw this video sucks: the contents are intresting, but the video sucks nonetheless.

USA! USA! We're #17! We're #17!

1. It should be noted that the editorial staff at The Economist is conservative -- they supported the Iraq war, for example.
2. That was an extremely tedious YouTube slide show, and all YouTube slide shows are tedious.

ha, everyone's waiting to see where the US came. country comparisons similar to this nearly always have the same top few, for quality of living etc...

[OT]
Camarilla is big, silly and predictable, just like American government.
Sabbat is smaller, sillier and less predictable, just like Italian government.

from Vampire: The Masquerade, 3rd edition

Ugh, so poorly presented. Can't upvote.

i wouldn't say that the economist is 'conservative' per se...

probably more accurate to say they are 'fiscally' conservative, such as in free trade and free markets, which says nothing of their social policy leanings

they did support the invasion of iraq and continue to do so, but are also vocal critics of how the war has been prosecuted

they've also criticized individuals such as paul wolfowitz, silvio berlusconi, and supported clinton's impeachment, as well as having called for rumsfeld's resignation

they did support g.w. bush's election in 2000, but backed john kerry in 2004

labels are nifty, but are often not very accurate

*dead

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