Best Countires survey

[Bill Greenwood]

There is a survey just out of "best" countries in the world, to be more accurate. where people are happiest, and it is interesting and maybe surprising. And whats aviation like in these? Its Norway number 1 then Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands. So these are all cold weather northern places, it that a key or just coincidence? Most are Scandinavian type, and smaller, not so much like the U S. Canada is next at no. 7 and is likely closest to U S, both in distance and style.Canada of course has private and gen aviation, but perhhaps not as much as U S. Far as I know there is not a lot of private gen aviation in these top 4 or 5., maybe some glider flying? My guess, not being expert on them is that they have a more homogeneous population, and thus more agreement on how the govt should operate. I think they all have govt provided medical care, and education, and people may agree on taxes to support this. Iceland is a surproise to me, but then I dont know it, just the name seems cold and unwelcoming. Norway has the advantage of having oil wealth so that per capita income in $100,000 per resident! And these countries pretty much stay peacful. US ranks 14th, one of the negatives was that we have such a stratified society, such an economic gap from top to bottom. The saddest places are Somalia, Syria, etc. places that are hot climate and poor, and of course often war torn. Another surprise is that Israel ranks about 12, I think it was and with all their conflict with hostile neighbors is still above the U S. So U S at 14 out of 150 countries is good but not quite as high as most people might think.