Do No Harm

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Where do you live?


How did you end-up there? Where is good in your life? Your country?



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[Blaggard]

The UK is at no1 for science and technology, I'm pretty sure Iceland has the highest research/tchnology index but that's per capita and the chart may not work on that solely, so meh. By the way culture is a very mixed term, I'd disagree with the UKs cultural impact because a) we owned 1/3 of the Earth's land surface at one point, and b) many people speak English as a lingua Franca, Americans for example owe a sizeable proportion of their culture to us as do Canadians and Australians, and to a lesser extent some of the commonwealth coutries or ex commonwealth countries, and we in turn owe a sizeable proportion to the classical world, particularly Rome and Greece. Go to any government building in this country and the Doric pillars will remind you of that, as will our language, and the nomenclature in science. That said the fact that we are no 1 at anything is a shock to me to say the least.

What I don't like is now even some people who are working have to use foodbanks (places that hand out free groceries to those who cannot afford to feed their famillies), despite not being in any major credit debt, because the cost of living is now so high people, and this is married couples, on low wage jobs cannot afford to live any more on it. What I do like is our culture, it's very diverse and interesting, and our history is third only perhaps to Greece, Rome and Egypt meh maybe some others but OTTOMH. I don't like our governments, I don't really think they represent peoples views and haven't for a long time. I don't like our more interventionist actions, they seem to have caused more problems than they solved. I do like the NHS immensely, free prescriptions and medical care for life, well presuming you pay National Insurance(NI) of course, and the top wage earners only pay 1%, seems like an equitable system and we are sliding from our 18th best healthcare country up the charts. I like our sense of humour, I dislike some of the tabloids racist views. Other than that I am fairly happy with my country atm.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

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Where do you live?


How did you end-up there? Where is good in your life? Your country?



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My country is way up the top. It usually is in any of thse kind of lists. I wonder where the US is.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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GUESS WHICH COUNTRY DOES THE MOST GOOD FOR THE PLANET?





I think the United States is #21.



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[vegetariantaxidermy]

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GUESS WHICH COUNTRY DOES THE MOST GOOD FOR THE PLANET?





I think the United States is #21.



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US scores at 101 on the Global Peace Index, not surprising. What does the score 21 for? 'Aid' in the form of weapons.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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[prof]

Hi, Bill

Thanks for posting The Good Country Index.

That, along with The Happiness Index and the Best Places to Work Index, are Ethical technologies: they apply value criteria to measure important ethical concepts that have been implemented in practice.

I am delighted to see someone here focusing on the positive and the constructive. I heard recently that Australia has a more-advanced civilization than the U.S. They provide free education on the college level; they provide free health care; they have sane gun-limitation laws.

And we in the U.S.A. can certainly learn from Finland which has in its Constitution a guarantee to a job for everyone willing to work, and a recognition of the rights of women.

...Good work !

[Bill Wiltrack]

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.....................Yeah, it seems that the best places to live have a strong element of socialism within them...



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[prof]

A word you used, Bill, namely the word "socialism" has at least a dozen definitions and maybe 25 interpretations, so it is best to not even use such a vague word - unless you supply an exact definition when you employ the word.

I would venture that the word does not communicate a meaning very well, and so would recommend not using it - it more obscures and causes gaps than it is helpful.

Sometimes labeling may be okay. Not in this instance.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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What if we used this?:

socialism
Houghton Mifflin
n.noun

Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.


The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.








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...it seems pretty straightforward.

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