Three countries with the best quality of life

The Country Comparison project reinforced many concerns we have about the world. One concern being the population growth. The population in many countries is huge and will soon become so bad that it could be unsafe. The world has many limited resources and if we don’t stop the growing population or slow it down many people will start to starve, and the amount of homeless people will increase. With the population growing, the world will never be able to provide enough food or living area for everyone; thus, the amount of people in pain from starvation will increase. Another big concern for the world is pollution which comes from large populations. The more people, the more supplies that are needed. Many supplies require fossil fuels to be produced which cause global warming. The amount of cars utilized causes pollution as well, so big population have more cars/pollution. Finally, war has been a problem for many of decades. With so much money going into military equipment, many countries lose money that could have been utilized for people who are on the brink of becoming homeless. Buying military supplies also promotes war which causes a lot of pollution and conflict amongst countries. Terrorism is also another factor that war brings because many people fear the attack of terrorists. With money being spent on military equipment, it gives terrorists more of an opportunity to use a country’s weapons against itself. These are all honest concerns one would have with the world, and after doing the Country Comparison project these were the main topics of concern.

Problems of the US

When you think of the United States of America, what comes to mind? A strong economy? A diverse culture? How about the word freedom? But, my question is are we really the ones in charge? Well some might have other opinions about the country we call home. As we all know no one thing can be perfect and the saying stays just as true when talking about the U. S. For example, standardize testing. No doubt schools within the U. S should be regularly checking on the students to make sure they are where they need to be and are getting the proper education to make it in the real world but the amount of money going into those standardized tests is not worth the results schools are receiving. Students all over the U. S are completely aware that these tests “ don’t count for anything” so taking them seriously does not even come to mind, they have become pointless 74 question tests that more than 50% of students do not take seriously. We need to start coming up with different alternative ways on how we can check a student’s progress because these tests are steps in the wrong direction. Some schools (WSHS) are even going as far as bribing students with free parking passes, ipods, gift cards and even money as rewards to doing well on these tests. They just are not worth the hassle. They are very inaccurate and something that all students hate taking. Now lets take a deeper look into some real complex issues the United States struggles with. Poverty is arguably the most far-reaching, long-standing cause of chronic suffering there is. According to PBS. org more than one out of every six people in the United States lives in poverty or near-poverty. For children, the rate is even higher. Even in the middle class there is a great deal of anxiety about the possibility of falling into poverty or something close to it – through divorce, for example, or simply being laid off as companies try to improve their competitive advantage. Besides wasting money on standardized tests or not having enough money to put a roof over your head let’s talk about the cost of education. According to Nation Center for Education Statistics for the 2012–13 academic year, annual current dollar prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board were estimated to be $15, 022 at public institutions, $39, 173 at private nonprofit institutions, and $23, 158 at private for-profit institutions. Between 2002–03 and 2012–13, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 39 percent, and prices at private nonprofit institutions rose 27 percent, after adjustment for inflation. The price for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at private for-profit institutions decreased 7 percent between 2002–03 and 2012–13, after adjustment for inflation. These prices won’t stop here they are estimated to only get higher and this is a scary thought to think that all children currently attending elementary or even middle school right now will be over their head in debt when college rolls around. Yes, student loans are nice that is until the time actually comes when they need to be paid for. As stated before the U. S is more definitely not perfect we have issues but they are issues that can be resolved if we take initiative and get the job done. When looking at the three problems I talked about there was one constant variable, money. So I will ask once more, are we really the ones in charge?

Final conclusion:

Through this assignment we found that Switzerland, The United States, and Germany had the best quality of life and were the strongest economically. We choose the United States because although the debt is rather large, the US has a strong economy through its exports and imports and has a strong military. The imports, especially from China, are very popular and help the economy with providing many products that are extremely popular in the US. The graphs show how much the US invests on military expenditures, and a strong military is always a good sign for a strong country. The US also has a strong quality of life with infant mortality and unemployment rates being pretty good for how populated the US is. The US also has a good life expectancy along with Switzerland and Germany. Switzerland has a strong life expectancy and it also has good use of energy. We noticed energy because it has hydroelectricity which is a very good source of energy. They also have a very low amount of their population in poverty making the quality of life there very good. Finally Germany we found had a very strong economy and quality of living. They had a high life expectancy which improves the quality of living. They were also a world superpower for decades so their GDP real growth rate is extremely good compared to many other countries. FInally, Germany was very strong in our view because of its external debt, which shows us it is a wealthy country that is able to lend money to many other countries. These three countries show extremely strong characteristics in their economy and in their condition of living, and this project showed us that not only is the US a comfortable place to live but also many other countries have very nice living conditions.