European countries with a higher HDI than the US. I wonder what makes these countries have a better quality of life. Couldn’t be free (or close to free) healthcare and better working conditions.
European countries with a higher HDI than the US. I wonder what makes these countries have a better quality of life. Couldn’t be free (or close to free) healthcare and better working conditions.
3 comments
[HDI Explained](https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index)
Speaking as a dual irish American citizen, this is my opinion. In the states, you have areas with huge amounts of wealth and prosperity. There are cities that you could easily make 2 to 3 times a wage you would other wise make in Ireland and other rich countries in Europe. However, there are also huge swaths of the US where you’d be lucky to make the national average and those areas can properly, as a courtesy, be described as depressed. So it really does depend on where you are. However, in my own experience, while America is the place for higher wages, it’s much more comfortable to be average in Ireland than it is in America. Regarding the healthcare and all that, America does have some forms of socialized healthcare via Medicare and Medicare, but those systems certainly aren’t as universal as they are in Ireland. They are still provided by “private” individuals who just take the coin from the government. On the healthcare note, a person making 150,000 a year can still easily go bankrupt from a months stay in a hospital. It’s much easier to climb socially in the US, but also incredibly easy to fall as well
Some US states would acore low. Others high. https://vividmaps.com/human-development-index-us-vs-europe/amp/