MarkKol

I have traveled to over 18 countries in my life across the entire world, Europe, Asia, and North America, but one country keeps catching my eye in terms of checking every box for quality of life: Australia. I truly have no bias or attachment to this place, I haven’t been there either (yet), BUT on paper, this country seems to have the most important things. Here are my thoughts in no particular order. I won't go into living costs or political problems, as everyone in the world has an issue with these things. IT'S EXPENSIVE EVERYWHERE. Sydney and Melbourne are giant seaside/coastal cities, which is rare. Bigger than a lot of European countries and cities in population, at 5+ million each Giant skyscrapers On the Pacific Ocean Safer than most Western countries, like the UK, USA, France, Canada, and Sweden. 480,000–630,000 animal species are unique to Australia. AU has all kinds of stunning birds, bugs, mammals, reptiles, and fish that can't be found anywhere else in the world Examples: Cassowary Platypus leafy sea dragon Wild Kangaroos, Dolphins, Koalas, Wombats, EMU... Warm climate Lots of greenery, sand, nature, and water. This can't be understated. It's rare to see such livable cities and such unique terrain. Might add more later. Australia is what people think California is; California is a pretty place mixed in with the ugliest slums I've seen. Australia is IT. Only issues Skin cancer rates are super high Insanely remote, far away even from South Asia.

If you ask ChatGPT, it's gonna say, Vienna, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Zurich, Melbourne, Vancouver (?), Tokyo, Auckland. It's more objective than you may think, because of human values, and they apply evenly across the board. Like spending more time outside, your personality can be opposed to it, and you'll still be miserable. Personalities are not wired for happiness. Your personality can wire you for misery. In personality tests, you're asked what you do daily, not whether you actually like doing it. You can look at this Forbes article and see how often New Zealand and Australia rank. Everything is expensive. If you live in Bulgaria, where life is cheap, salaries will match, and it will still be expensive. Although there is some truth to this, Germany has higher wages, lower rent and grocery prices than Canada, despite 200% more demand in DE, higher GDP, and a fraction of the size in square meters. The funny part is that people still complain about German prices!!!

Likely the one I’m facing right now, recently my visa to go to Canada (Toronto) got approved, I was thinking of using it to move and start a business in trades, It’s probably the best financial decision I can make, and later move the business to the US or Australia. The barrier to entry is practically none, the visa is approved, apprenticeships and licensing are loose in Canada for trades comparatively. Or stay in Europe and pursue something online. The question is less financial and more about do I really see myself living in these places long term. 5 years ago most of these places were mostly imagination, when I traveled to the US 2 years ago, my illusion was broken. It’s not perfect, some things I found inauthentic to how I wanted to live.

You can look at Melbourne and Sydney from a plane, and you'll see tons of greenery; it looks very tropical. You can see here how the ocean penetrates deep into Sydney like a river Central Europe doesn't even have sandy beaches; the only one I'm aware of is in the Netherlands, which looks terrible. If Central Europe means Germany, Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland, it doesn't even compare; most of these are very gothic/soviet style countries, I'm personally not the biggest fan of it, some of it is genuinely old and crooked like Budapest and Prague. I don't understand how people can look at those black bricks in Prague and think it's nice looking, maybe historic, definitely not pretty. Nobody actually wants to go outside and feel like they're living in medieval times. Germany can be nice, but definitely not tropical or exciting. I went to Tokyo last month, and the best part of the city, called Odaiba, was the one part most similar to Sydney and Melbourne. I'd call it a life-changing experience. Insanely livable, fashion and car scene unmatched, walking around at 2 am, super late night restoraunts and convenience stores. I would actually rate the US and UK the worst in livability, with some US exceptions. Amsterdam is perhaps at Australia's level. It's hard to even think of how a place where everyone is armed to the teeth with guns and knives could be livable. To each their own

You guys belong between America and Europe in the Atlantic, just below Greenland, you should know that. It's strange to fly over the Indians and Asians to arrive at a place where there are again, redneck whites.

We live in a world where adult men wake up and play video games on their computers first thing in the morning for hours. A lot of them have sub-consciously given up. Governments must shut down all internet use on weekends at least (sedentary uses first perhaps) Because if the government doesn’t intervene people stray away from basic humans values, that’s just how infantile we are.

It could be that your way of life and your values are truly rare Recently I’ve been feeling like I’m the only sane/sober person in this world, I’ve quit drinking, cocaine, video games, porn, conspiracy thinking, red/black pill ideologies and smoking, meanwhile 30 year old men at my company are still playing league of legends. I find most normal people deranged these days, I can’t believe how they live their lives in such thoughtless ways. If you’re liberal, maybe move to a more liberal city. Participle in activities that are most authentic.

Being more evolved should include being better at socializing with anyone

She was shot while she was driving away, that’s not self defense, and even if she was about to run them over, the car wouldn’t just stop after she was dead. It’s pointless, American conservatives are too lost, you’ll have an easier time teaching a monkey how to cook an omelette then changing their minds.

I'm not surprised people do these heinous acts; life can get really, really bad, and the world is a big place. If you think about those school shooter statistics, and how they skyrocketed over the years. Nothing has really changed materially; people used to get bullied just as much as they do now, and guns have been present in America for a long time. The difference is, men, really, men today have been bred into much weaker, socially inept, and sad creatures. It's mostly about video games, social media, and all that self-isolating jazz, so much so that I believe it's a threat to the existence of society. These things have to be turned off every week on a consistent basis.

Many things could be going through a suicidal person's head; god knows what he was thinking. Death by despair has increased drastically because society has degenerated in many lifestyle domains, like socialisation; therefore, most people's needs are far from being met in the things that matter. It is almost certain that he lost all hope in that brief moment that things would get better for him. It takes a certain kind of personality to really kill yourself, one that is as daring as it is hopeless, but then again, not everyone is pushed to the same extent.

Jobs is an inspiration He was so articulate in his words and so original in his thinking. He was seemingly always interested in things beyond his personal life, something that becomes hard to do once you're an adult. Also, his ballsy ways of living, I traveled the whole world by myself, and still couldn't feel that risk-free and detached. There's something very masculine in how he lived

Public companies, stock market, private equity, capitalism have to be restructured, all of these systems are literally designed for inflation (literal, like the price of eggs, and value inflation, nvidia is now bigger than Germany). The average person is barely even benefiting from what these companies make anymore. @integral I see you moved from the UK to Montreal, how do you like it there?

Europe will always be far better for employees and North America better for employers, just when you thought we couldn’t get any laxer, they’re shortening the work week to less than 40h/week. I’m probably going to the Budapest airport in 4 days, unless I cancel my trip, it looks tiny from the pictures. Hungary is very eerie and dead outside of Budapest, hard to believe there are people still living in villages there.

Come to Berlin, my friend

Health problems are terrible. Hope he finds peace.

If you're gonna work night shift, I'd quit day one It's like the opposite of self-development. It's a slow, miserable decline. First, you're a little tired, 6 months later, you can't get an erection with a destroyed libido Speaking from experience

That's not true I think Scandinavia is more redistributive than France. Isn't that just another word for socialist? Those are a small, in some cases, tiny minority that doesn't drive any social change as drastic as the decline of birth rates Economics certainly has a lot to do with birth rates, but the affordability of life can only improve with more socialist and wealth tax policies. I don't see any other way of making life cheaper.

Not necessarily, what even is normal and healthy in this case? Is it wild that kids are seen as a liability and a barrier to some people? Eat and fuck maybe, not have children I certainly hope more people think more like you than me, because I'm not saying having kids is right or wrong, I'm saying that dumb Republican states have higher birth rates than democratic areas, Africa certainly has much higher birth rates than Denmark, but Denmark has policies and institutions that African nations can only dream of. Deprived places have more children Maybe in America, where war, starvation, or massive corruption never happened, in the baby boomer generations, in Europe, you would've been running away from the nazis or starving away in China or Africa

It's interesting how humans are designed just to keep breeding and remain idiots More education → Higher political correctness + Higher salaries + fewer children Less Education → Lower political correctness + lower quality of life + more children You repeat that over and over again, and there are a lot more dumb people than smart ones The smart ones die out because they stop having kids, and the dumb ones keep reproducing. Maybe there's a way to reverse this, but we don't currently know how yet. I don't think it's the cost of living; it was much harder to survive 100 years ago than today. Who knows where this thing leads, a collapse of society or some equilibrium? That's the bigger question here.

Perhaps I'm too paranoid from all the violent content I get on my feed Assaults are apparently hitting new lows

Would you support a surveillance state in America? To me, it seems like a very smart idea, and I don't see how it limits anyone's freedom besides criminals The UK already has 360-degree cameras on vans that scan faces and reveal criminals https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOJoRJ8gBu0/?igsh=MTA5YnBxMjNoeHI1aw== The UK does arrest people based on stupid things like tweets these days, but that's a totally separate thing from a surveillance state

This is because European countries were the only countries that could afford to wage wars against each other; they had money to throw, not to mention, it's a very diverse and small place, you don't have to march 3000 kilometers from one place to another. The actual warmongering country, Russia, is a rogue mafia state, not to be confused with the rest of Europe. They have radically different ways of thinking from the rest of us. Russians don't fit the common European way of thinking by any stretch of the imagination. If you think Germany and Spain are warmongering and barbaric in comparison, you're insane. Things have drastically changed since nazi Germany. It's not something Germans today are proud of or happy with. European countries have done a great disservice and injustice to places such as India and Africa, and continue to do so today. Racism is based on money; the poorer your country, the more racist the world is against you. Why is anti-semitism a thing if all Jews are white? It's not because of Israel, it's because Jews were viewed as hoarders and manipulators of money and government throughout history; it all comes down to money, in other words, survival. India = poor = racism against India by the rest of the world. Singapore = rich = can't be racist against Singapore

Sold my pc because video games like this one were running my entire life. I loved hard games. rip

Rapper xxxTentacion got shot multiple times in the chest because they wanted his louis vuitton bag, Kids are getting shot in churches and schools. Ukrainian woman gets stabbed on a bus. You don’t just have political violence, you have violence for everyone in America. Everyone can get it, all you have to do is spend time there. Charlie gets shot in a white mormon state, right next to those mormon schools where they don’t even drink alcohol in their early twenties. You can get shot anywhere