US Number 1?

Once again, not so much.

For the second year it has been named the world's best place to live, according to a report released Wednesday.

A company named Mercer, a global outsourcing and investment consultancy produces the annual "Worldwide Quality of Living Survey" and just released their latest edition.

European cities take seven of the top 10 spots for quality of life, thanks to their relative safety, political stability and cultural offerings. As for the U.S., Honolulu, at No. 31, has the best quality-of-life record and the continental U.S. makes its first appearance on the list at 32, with San Francisco tying Adelaide, Australia. Boston came in at No. 37, Chicago and Washington, D.C. tied for 45th place, and New York ranked 49. Philadelphia and Dallas were ranked for the first time this year, landing spots 55 and 61 on the list, respectively.


European cities take seven of the top 10 spots for quality of life, thanks to their relative safety, political stability and cultural offerings. As for the U.S., Honolulu, at No. 31, has the best quality-of-life record and the continental U.S. makes its first appearance on the list at 32, with San Francisco tying Adelaide, Australia. Boston came in at No. 37, Chicago and Washington, D.C. tied for 45th place, and New York ranked 49. Philadelphia and Dallas were ranked for the first time this year, landing spots 55 and 61 on the list, respectively.

Here's a silver lining for us, anyway:

Although the U.S. didn't do poorly by Mercer's standards--most American cities on the list had index scores above 100--weaker safety records kept them from competing with lower-crime Western European capitals.

But guns come 'round to bite us in the butt again:

"In the U.S., crime is typically more prevalent, and the availability of handguns is an issue," says Powers. "Many of the locations in Canada and Switzerland have a little more of social net that diminishes that kind of crime."

So we suck at health care--ranked 37th, internationally, behind Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh's revered Costa Rica, for pity's sake and now we no way have any of the best places to live on the planet, according to this ranking.

We suck at mass transit--it's nearly non-existent here. We suck at crime, violence and the prevalence of guns.

But hey, we're number one at war, eh? And national defense spending. We blow everyone out of the water with that.

No pun intended.

This isn't merely to complain or just to put down the US. This is to say there are things we could, can and should improve on, that's all.

And we should get to work, all of us, together on them, as one, instead of splintered into our own little groups, fighting against one another.


Link to original post:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/worlds-best-places-to-live