Objectively, Australia is the best country

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

I don't personally really see any benefits tbh and that seems to be the point of contention anyway; differences in personalities and priorities. Where you see giant coastal cities with large populations and social opportunities I only see a ton of annoyance and polution, where you see plethora of animal species I only see the creepy and dangerous ones; where you see nature I see deserts and weak excuse of a greenery compared to that of Europe; where you see warm climate I see blazing heat and scorched earth. Also most certainly not safer than central Europe for example

[MarkKol]

2 hours ago, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

I don't personally really see any benefits tbh and that seems to be the point of contention anyway; differences in personalities and priorities. Where you see giant coastal cities with large populations and social opportunities I only see a ton of annoyance and polution, where you see plethora of animal species I only see the creepy and dangerous ones; where you see nature I see deserts and weak excuse of a greenery compared to that of Europe; where you see warm climate I see blazing heat and scorched earth. Also most certainly not safer than central Europe for example

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

Edited yesterday at 12:11 AM by MarkKol

[Yimpa]

On 1/27/2026 at 10:27 PM, MarkKol said:

Australia is IT.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

3 hours ago, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

I don't personally really see any benefits tbh and that seems to be the point of contention anyway; differences in personalities and priorities. Where you see giant coastal cities with large populations and social opportunities I only see a ton of annoyance and polution, where you see plethora of animal species I only see the creepy and dangerous ones; where you see nature I see deserts and weak excuse of a greenery compared to that of Europe; where you see warm climate I see blazing heat and scorched earth. Also most certainly not safer than central Europe for example

While I agree we all have personal subjective perspectives and needs - and these evolve through our lives as we change - the title was 'objectively'  

I mean, I like Australia mostly for quality of life & balance. But I was born and raised here - so I suffer from SIGNIFICANT bias. Which makes this totally subjective for me also lol

What would be your pick of best country/s, objectively?

[Joseph Maynor]

One of my favorite post rock albums from an Australian band.  
 

 

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, Yimpa said:

Australia in a nutshell?

Lol

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

7 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

What would be your pick of best country/s, objectively?

I genuinely don't know, I could easily name you the list of worst countries objectively and everyone knows what they are and there would be no dispute there; but picking best countries will only ever be subjective. It depends on who you are and what's your personality and what your priorities are and values and what your experience was like in that country; for me, I don't like big, car centric cities with ugly utilitarian architecture and huge populations; and that's vast majority of cities (all cities actually). I wouldn't mind too much to go on a vacation to these huge cities but for actual long term living, I'd prefer more historical looking smaller cities that are not poluted and car centric. And I couldn't care less about the extra services and nightclubs and the beaches LOL parks are also in every western city so that's not something unique. What you gonna do in a park, jog and go on a walk, that's about it. What you gonna do on a beach, sunbathe and swim? Still an ugly car centric utilitarian souless poluted city lmao

Based on these subjective feelings of mine, I'd put countries in the central Europe on top; Switzerland, Baltic states and Netherlands included. Maybe a couple more I've forgotten to include but they'd all be located in Europe. Then there would be the rest of western Europe in the second place, and then somewhere on the third place, faaar below the second place would be US, Australia and the rest of the western countries. With some of the third world countries competing with them for the third place due to their low cost of living

[Staples]

I'm lucky to live there. But unless we make a significant investment in new cities and infrastructure the country is doomed to rot. 

But investments like that are not cost effective anymore. Our cost of living is already too high. So here we are, stuck in stagnation.

[TimStr]

Australia as a country has enourmous problems:

 

[MarkKol]

13 hours ago, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

picking best countries will only ever be subjective. It depends on who you are and what's your personality and what your priorities are and values

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!!!

[Ulax]

I refuse to believe Australia is a real country.

I've seen too many videos of kangaroos squaring up on people to take its existence seriously.

[Basman]

On 1/30/2026 at 0:51 AM, MarkKol said:

Central Europe doesn't even have sandy beaches; the only one I'm aware of is in the Netherlands, which looks terrible.

Due to the winds the sand of Dutch beaches stretch quiet a bit inland and form a landscape of soft rolling hills which merges with the greenery and the woods further in. You get a unique blend of pine, tall grass and a sandy ground across a bouncy landscape, spotted with ponds and wetlands teeming with bird life. During spring this landscape is in full bloom with a myriad of flowers. You can hear the bees zoom like echoing cars.

It's an invading desert that got overgrown. The dutch dunes is one of my favorite nature spots. 

The beaches themselves stretch a great distance. The landscape is surprisingly hilly for a flat country due to the wind moving so much sand. You can breathe in sand particles miles away from the ocean if the wind blows right, making you cough.