The Index

[bcholmes]

A lot of Canadians of my acquaintance liked to refer to the UN report that said that Canada had the highest quality of life of all first world nations. We were so rated from 1996 to 2000. Then Norway took our spot and we slid to number three.

(I had a co-worker who was Norwegian. The whole 2001 Index thing coincides with his move to Canada. Of course, I blamed him).

The most recent index has Canada slipping to number 10. And this part is important: Canada is behind the US, now. And that's the part that'll be a real blow to our collective ego.

The Star's article says that the Index is based on these factors:

• life expectancy;
• education;
• health;
• income;
• poverty; and
• the environment.

There's also something about status of women, 'cause the article mentions the low percentage of women in our parliament as one of the factors that pulled us down.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but now that you're legalizing weed and same-sex marriages, everyone will be too happy to care.

Given those evaluation factors...

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

...how does Canada end up BEHIND the US?

Maybe because the UN is trying to placate the US and keep it from attacking another third-world nation.

Life expectancy - the last PRB report I saw had Canada and the US within a year of each other in this figure

Education - the US consistantly finishes at or near the bottom in test scores among the first-world nations

Health - the quality of health care in the US may be slightly better, but with about 5 to 10% of population uninsured, versus Canada having universal coverage??? Let's get real here...at the worst it comes out a wash. Or shall I ask those thousands of Gulf War vets about their "psychosomatic" illnesses?

Income - again, our "per capita" income may be higher than Canada's, but how is that income distributed? Or how does it compare with the costs-of-living? Looking at a simple raw number like "per capita income" doesn't tell the whole story when you have people like Bill Gates skewing the figure.

Poverty - I'm not sure how this falls out, comparing the US and Canada, but it's probably relatively similar, to be honest

The environment - is there even a question here? Canada signed the Kyoto Accords, while the US has laughed at them.

Status of women - Having women in the legislature doesn't necessarily make the lot of women better. Especially when those women are voting against abortions rights and access to adequate effective birth control measures (no, abstinance ISN'T enough...).

Looking at how this index was compiled, I wonder if it wasn't skewed specifically to make the US look better. We're no better than the nations of the Middle East, but with less-yummy food and lots of high-tech gizmos widely available in order to anaesthetise the masses.

the UN index

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i haven't read it yet (and i admit, i didn't read the previous ones either), but personally i am quite a bit more content living in canada than in the US, and that hasn't decreased, but increased since the US has made grave inroads on its civil liberties. i guess the report hasn't had time to take that into account, but i wonder whether it will do so at all. i wasn't really interested before because i don't expect that any aggregate report would take into account all the things that matter to me personally.

but frankly, i am now curious as to what statistical methods are employed to have canada come in behind the US in education, poverty, and the environment. life expectancy has got to be extremely close, and health -- gosh, i rather wait for a hip replacement surgery than not have any health coverage. as regards status of women -- having a low percentage of women in parliament doesn't say a whole lot about the treatment of women in general. i feel less sexism (and less racism too, where's the benchmark for that?) in canada than in the US. and i see, if we were to talk just top level politics, also nothing in the way of a female prime minister (heck, we had one years ago, and we have another candidate now, though man, i dislike her with a passion), contrary to the US where i think it's problematic to even run with a woman as vice presidential candidate. i can't put my finger quite on it, but the attitudes do seem different to me.

how many fewer women (%) are there in canadian parliament? does the percentage carry through all levels of government? any studies on this?

*thinking* ... or has the income differential become so great that it outperforms all the other categories?

[angilong.livejournal.com]

Canada slipping to number 10

Correction: number 8.

I don't see how it comes out behind the U.S., either. However they calculate this, it's certainly a limited way of looking at things.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

*Bizarre*. I would have thought even on those factors, Canada would beat the pants off US. I wonder if the income thingie doesn't include income distribution. Our rich are getting richer-er than our poor are getting poor-er. Or something like that. I think that should count against us, not for.