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

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.