11.27.2007

Iceland Ranks #1 At World's Most Livable Country. U.S. Falls From 8th to 12th.

Reading this site about Iceland, I can understand why. From its vast variety of progressive governmental parties to its universal government provided health care and education (including university education) to its very impressive low unemployment rate (2.5%), high average life expectancy (83 for females, 79 for men) and very low infant mortality rate, to its awesome human rights policies, Iceland provides a model we need to be emulating. And all in a free-market system, too.

As I have been blogging about for eons, you can indeed have a true socialist system, a rich free-market, and excellent quality of life. The best of all worlds.

It's a little something called "balance". And understanding that free-market does not mean you hoard the wealth or forgo basic human rights to achieve that wealth. Understanding that a successful government entity must represent the private citizen in all ways first and foremost, at all levels. And most importantly, understanding that a strong level of maturity and wisdom is indeed needed to make such a system work. Unfortunately, our System is still largely operated under the value system of John Wayne.

2 comments:

tkn said...

Iceland is also blessed with abundant geothermal energy, which they are using to make hydrogen. They'll probably be the first hydrogen economy.

You call it balance. Others call it a mixed economy. Either way, we need more of it here.

crallspace said...

I have this pipedream about moving to Iceland. I know very little about it (however, i know that immigrants are not too popular there).

This is the same way I felt about ORE. I knew little to nothing about it. It was mostly imagination that drew me here and I was correct in my assumptions. I think Iceland may be the same way. And maybe I'll move there some day. That kind of thing is definitely not off the table.