Closest To Paradise On Earth?

[Waynish]

What location(s) (any city, town, country, or location) do you consider to be the absolute best on earth to live (and why)? Bonus: you have some money to make a home for yourself there, you don't need to work locally because you've income from elsewhere, so are free to "enjoy the fruits," as it were.

Obviously there's a lot of argument about food quality - and due to lack of studies on it - there aren't many objective measurements for which locations really produce the most nutrient-rich products. Climate is another issue - and there are many locations with similar climates in very different countries!

 

[Braveheart]

What location(s) (any city, town, country, or location) do you consider to be the absolute best on earth to live (and why)? Bonus: you have some money to make a home for yourself there, you don't need to work locally because you've income from elsewhere, so are free to "enjoy the fruits," as it were.

Obviously there's a lot of argument about food quality - and due to lack of studies on it - there aren't many objective measurements for which locations really produce the most nutrient-rich products. Climate is another issue - and there are many locations with similar climates in very different countries!

Wouldn't exactly call it the best, but it's got a lot going for it...Belize....Beautiful w an over abundance of fresh fruit, grass fed meat/dairy, fresh seafood...easy to do good Peat style diet here... clean air, sunny and warm w little expense for clothing, cheap land and construction cost, favorable exchange rate, stable and English speaking, laid back atmosphere, close to States, etc, etc.....there are cons too....no place is perfect

 

[ddjd]

Austrian mountains. Tyrol. Heaven on earth

 

[yerrag]

I think the best place has to be free of tyranny. It has to be a place where people dare to be free of it, and care enough to be involved. They make effort to be informed, and as a whole they can make decisions for the good of the community. They would be willing to defend themselves and are not afraid to die for it. If death should befall one of them, there is a sort of insurance system that provides for them, so that their children and widows do not get abandoned. A strong sense of civics is important as it keeps their society free from corruption. In this way, the system is serving them, and it's never the other way around. The result is the wise use of resources, making sure of sustainability. Forests are not denuded where water becomes a scourge instead of a blessing, fertilizing the land instead of flooding the land, enabling the land to stay fertile and provide for an abundance of food. Food is rich in nutrition. The air and water is clean. The educational system is geared towards teaching people to have critical thinking skills, and to be able to communicate well. This would be in contrast to the mechanical method of handfed rote education, which stunts our thinking and make us accept whatever is decreed to us.

I think that a place that provides well for our security and peace of mind will be naturally inclined to want to provide the means for our basic needs, such as food. Without such a disposition, the food will always be reduced to the lowest cost and highest profit. A learned populace will know how to value the quality of food such that poor quality will be shunned, and production of good quality food is encouraged.

I think there are too many countries that are simply vassal states of hegemons such as the United States to be able to free itself from the tyranny of the dictates of multinational corporations. The competition for profits, especially in public corporations, makes profit growth the sole yardstick for success.

A country where hospitals are not top moneymakers, and where doctors serve the patient rather than the system, would be considered backwards. Where there is no need for a health insurance system because health care is not an onerous, and where people have enough decency that lawsuits are uncommon because the violation is frequently nipped at the bud to begin with, this is a place called paradise for me.

I don't think any country would qualify because of the effects of globalization where every land is game for the corporate carpetbaggers. But if I were to name a country where people are conscious of their civic responsibilities, and where they are served by the system, I would say it's Switzerland.

 

[Jem Oz]

Beautiful words @yerrag.

Whilst it's a long way from perfect, I feel genuinely lucky to be from Australia. Healthcare is free and universal. Frivolous lawsuits are extremely uncommon. There is a strong safety net in place, should the wheels fall off your wagon. Unemployment is low. And I feel the positive, largely unspoken impact from living so far away from conflict zones.

There are many problems, as with everywhere (and plenty of cliched myths), and I think that the seductive tentacles of globalization reach further into our psyche with each passing year. I also think two of the biggest and most unfortunate recent developments down under have been the casualisation of the workforce, and the massive, greedy, dishonest corporatisation of higher education. Shame on our universities for becoming profit machines, and convincing us they're not.

'Education' is a barbaric nightmare, which we have to devote the rest of our lives to trying to wake up from. Along with finding whatever ways we can to resist the seductive lullabies of capitalism, which equate our worth with our salary, job title and enthusiasm to consume more and more.

All of that aside, when I'm done with my dealings down in southern Oz, I'll be setting up home near Byron Bay. Amazing climate, buckets of sunshine, warm water, wild surf, organic produce for days, and lots of space to do your own thing.

 

[EIRE24]

Thailand is amazing

 

[Lucenzo01]

I would say New Zealand.

 

[dfspcc20]

Too often we get into a "grass is greener" mentality. There are so many variables that affect health. People can be healthy and happy almost anywhere. Being able to creatively adapt and thrive in any natural environment is one of the defining aspects of being human.

Hat tip to @yerrag and his post. I'd add to that a money system that reflects the natural environment, rather than one that is completely detached from reality. Maybe that means going back to the gold standard, or going even further to a negative-interest currency. As opposed to money as interest-bearing debt, represented by mere bits in a computer.

 

[ecstatichamster]

In one’s loved partner’s sexual embrace. That is heaven on earth

 

[walker_in_aus]

Beautiful words @yerrag.

Whilst it's a long way from perfect, I feel genuinely lucky to be from Australia. Healthcare is free and universal. Frivolous lawsuits are extremely uncommon. There is a strong safety net in place, should the wheels fall off your wagon. Unemployment is low. And I feel the positive, largely unspoken impact from living so far away from conflict zones.

There are many problems, as with everywhere (and plenty of cliched myths), and I think that the seductive tentacles of globalization reach further into our psyche with each passing year. I also think two of the biggest and most unfortunate recent developments down under have been the casualisation of the workforce, and the massive, greedy, dishonest corporatisation of higher education. Shame on our universities for becoming profit machines, and convincing us they're not.

'Education' is a barbaric nightmare, which we have to devote the rest of our lives to trying to wake up from. Along with finding whatever ways we can to resist the seductive lullabies of capitalism, which equate our worth with our salary, job title and enthusiasm to consume more and more.

All of that aside, when I'm done with my dealings down in southern Oz, I'll be setting up home near Byron Bay. Amazing climate, buckets of sunshine, warm water, wild surf, organic produce for days, and lots of space to do your own thing.

Hear Hear - I see the potential of our country but I also see our "leaders" determined to turn it into America... and by leaders I mean puppets.

 

[yerrag]

Hear Hear - I see the potential of our country but I also see our "leaders" determined to turn it into America... and by leaders I mean puppets.

I think all of us would agree that there's America the people, and then there's America the system. And you can substitute any country and replace the word America and it applies just as equally. And the system has the upper hand. This makes us as a society not really much different in a broader context to the slaves that bow to the pharaohs that built the pyramids.

Even as we had progressed beyond Gutenberg and the printed word, and information has never been more free with the internet, still we are chained to the confusion of disinformation, and this uncertainty and fear makes us cling to vestiges of a power structure that we look to for safety and security.

Our paradise ends up being this island of free thought. Always a minority because our message can never be understood by the masses who are modern day equivalents of spectators in a coliseum of gladiators in combat.