Greatest country in the world

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'd say the answer is probably Canada which is basically the US with most of the bad things about it greatly toned down (not entirely eliminated of course as Stephen Harper's majority currently proves), and no particular bad things about it that stand out (like the xenophobia in a lot of European countries, censorship-happiness in Australia, nanny statism in Scandinavia, etc.)

New Zealand kind of fits that bill too but it's too geographically isolated for me. (OK from what I've heard the anti-Maori racism can be kind of bad, but not necessarily any worse than the treatment of minorities in the US.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Indeed....Canada might not have a long list of bad/horrible things...but what have they done for the world community outside of giving us Alan Thike and Celine Dion?

OK but can you seriously make the argument that most of the US is a better place to live than most of Canada? The only way I would see someone do this is rant about "OMG SOCIALIST HEALTHCARE" but with what the teabaggers are saying even that would be a moot point now (or will be soon.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Canada also doesn't have as much as that awful sprawly exurbia (not saying it's nonexistant mind you, but there's nothing like metro Atlanta or SoCal in Canada.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I suspect Calgary ranks highly because of the oil boom is causing an economic bubble that artificially inflates metrics used to calculate things in "quality of life". Though I'll admit being able to get $12/hour upon hiring to a job at McDonald's is nothing to complain about (assuming that's actually the case in Calgary, just basing that on hearsay.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If some random lily-white rural county in the US or comparable place in another European country somehow got independence and raised hordes of money as a banking and tax haven for several decades despite having only about 35k people, it too could easily put an end to unemployment and have a first class health care system. It's not a sustainable model for any country of a realistic size. I suppose it's somewhat hypocritical for countries like the UK and France to condemn Liechtenstein when the Cayman Islands and all the French Pacific islands exist as they do, but that's not really the point.