Where in the world to live where people are cared about?

[Feathersandothers]

That’s it really . If you live somewhere where people have access to good healthcare, affordable bills, access to good free education , low crime .. where is it? Nowhere is perfect but some places must be better.
I didn’t live in the UK for most of my adult life, but I am British.
I’ve lived here for the past few years and don’t think I can do it much longer .
But I’m aware that places that I lived that were good before COVID etc are probably feeling the ramifications of global issues as we are here.
So if you live in a place where it feels that the government have your back, where are you?

Ive lived in France and Switzerland. Totally agree re the French bureaucracy, it was a nightmare. Especially if you want to rent a place, they basically want paper evidence of everything you've ever done in your life. Lots of waiting in queues and it's a lot easier if you speak at least some French.
Healthcare was very affordable and easy to get appointments quickly.
Public transport is much more affordable than in the UK, also a service of low-cost trains and buses.
France is such a diverse country, I did find it difficult to make friends but maybe that was on me or I was just unlucky.

Switzerland is beautiful, and everything runs properly. If a train is due at 9.06, it'll be there at 9:06 without question. Late trains were a rarity and they were never so crowded that you couldn't sit down. A little expensive but there were still ways to get discounts. Taxes higher but worth it.

Salaries were very high to match living costs. Somebody working at Aldi would be on around 3.5k a month gross. Unemployment benefits were excellent, as they are in France. Taxes were very low, but food etc. Can be pretty expensive. Cinema was around £17.50 for one ticket and this was 6 years ago.
However the scenery was amazing, the whole country was so clean and peaceful. Well located for travelling abroad, though I think Switzerland may get a bit boring eventually for some people. But on the whole it was like a fairytale.

Switzerland also depends on which work permit you get. My job could only give me an L which is the lowest, on this one you could never buy a house or anything, but I think most jobs get a higher one.

Kerala in India.

Beautiful weather, beautiful place, delicious, healthy and extremely cheap local food, excellent hospitals and very affordable healthcare, full health insurance for around £100 a year, excellent education, and, despite what a lot of people say about India, it's extremely safe, including for women. (Very different culture to the rest of the country.)

There's a lovely sort of harmony between religions too - in my experience, everyone is religious (usually Muslim, Hindu or Catholic) but there's not any tension between religions. People of different religions celebrate each other's festivals all together, and literally every religious holiday gets a day off work... regardless of the religion! So loads of days off! 😁And a really lovely and friendly and interesting environment to be a part of.

It's where my husband is from and I couldn't believe how great it was! Very different to the India I had experienced and travelled extensively in before meeting DH (when I didn't visit his state).

Similarly, when I went to go Goa in India I met a lot of British pensioners who go there (to one of the quieter beaches) for the winter as for less than the cost of their heating their home they can live like kings on a gorgeous sunny beach and have access to amazing food and excellent healthcare without queues if they ever need it.

The state of the NHS, and the culture that young people and teenagers experience puts me off raising my children in the UK.

Unless you have any clue about the lifestyle, culture and the country that seems like a very odd and misinformed choice based on a movie lol.

@Feathersandothers yeah going to retire in India is not gonna happen - it’s gonna be inhabitable soon enough with how hot it’s getting and the whole running out of water thing…

I am familiar with India and I would not suggest it for various reasons. Climate change being one. Though I agree private healthcare is very cheap and excellent. And certain areas of the country much safer than others.

Some people I know are exploring Thailand and Malaysia. I expect those countries will also be affected by climate change though.

ha what I really meant was although I wouldn’t mind India when my children have flown the nest there’s not a chance of it being a place I’d consider living (travelling wd be fine) with a family. I think the previous poster was referring to the documentary with Miriam Margolyes and co who trialed life in a very luxurious home in iirc Jaipur? They spent their days doing yoga by sunset and trawling markets for saris and jewels, and enjoying very thorough private healthcare investigations and alternative therapies.
It was a documentary designed to show life post retirement in India in contrast to Britain, but as another poster explained , was a very idealistic show with a group of very privileged participants.
Still I like the fantasy of living that kind of Indian experience!

I love living in the UK and I feel as if I live in a community that balances caring and privacy, though I think not everywhere is like this for sure.

I'd look for organisations and people that are good at building community and spend time there. Can be unexpected which ones they are.

If I were going to move overseas I'd want to consider Portugal simply because every Portuguese colleague I have is so fantastic - earthy, family orientated but a particularly dry sense of humour. But it's not as rich as the UK and that would take some adjustment.

I live somewhere in the UK supposedly sought after and middle class. I could relate numerous stories of the frosty 'good morning' type exchanges that the English think is being friendly. If you actually see the neighbours in person that is, most people come and go in cars.

It's a two week wait for a GP appointment, there are no NHS dentists taking new patients, the local shops are treasured as 'independent', this means extortionate prices so many of them are now closing. The countryside is beautiful but is constantly trashed by people not bothering to take their litter home with them and let's not mention dog owners, dog behaviour and cleaning up poop bags.

My DH found a raving woman in her dressing gown about to run into traffic on a busy road where no one was slowing, of course. He sorted her out but in the process I asked people in a local organisation about what to do. There was a lot of shuffling and it turned out that they knew exactly who she was and her beleaguered husband who cared for her 24 hours a day with no help. Not a single one of them offered help beyond 'call the GP'.

I think the UK has become a horrible place with no public infrastructure, car drivers who see cyclists as nuisances instead of other human beings, failing services and carelessness. On a local group chat about the renovation of a community hall, I saw, recently, someone comment 'I don't want to pay for something I don't use'. Yes, quite. I would love to live somewhere other than the UK, the quality of life here is total sh*t. The grass may not always be greener but rose tinted glasses that ignore the real problems out there leave me bemused.

@notsosoftanymore yep that’s the kind of thing 😫

Wouldn't it be wonderful if people actually felt there was a clear route to improving the UK. Most of us are striving for the same things, regardless of superficial differences. Why does it feel so utterly impossible to enact change?

Oh look how green that grass looks over there.....

Haven't RTFT but would be interested to hear views on Japan (please tell me if it's been covered!) People always talk about how people there have a high degree of social responsibility - e.g. very little littering, vandalism, ASB. Does that come partly from a sense of being well cared for?

The other place i would look at is certain states in the USA - eg Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Colorado... quite a few others.

But there ARE some places where the grass is (figuratively speaking) greener.

It's true that all countries have upsides and downsides, and many people may still prefer their home country to one which, objectively speaking, has fewer downsides.

However, it's only right to acknowledge that the standard of living in the UK is particularly low right now, and some countries are doing a better job than us despite facing the same global challenges.

You can't claim the US has good affordable healthcare...

I agree with you. One problem is that a majority are highly individualistic and are not interested in anything that’s for the common good. I would love the UK to be somewhere where people see the value of investing in infrastructure that works properly and in ensuring that everyone has the basics of being able to afford food, power and a roof over their head.

I was in mainland Europe recently - the cheap efficient public transport was a pleasure and the streets were clean and well maintained. The decline of the UK is sad.

Scepticalwotsits could you enlarge a bit more on Cuba?

OP, you will have to learn the language of the country that you relocate to and that isn’t easy for adults.

Well, there are lots of good things about Australia. Cost of living is higher, but wages are higher as well, enough to allow a better lifestyle. Housing very affordable outside the main cities.

Free GP, hospital care and schooling is available, but private healthcare and schools are also very affordable and well-run. It's a very egalitarian society without ingrained class structures and obsessions.

Up north it's sunny all year round 😃

I was going to ask if this would be a similar experience for non white Brits moving to NZ? I know a mixed race family who went to NZ on an extended holiday, with a view to moving there, they came back saying it was a lot more blatantly racist than the U.K.

I lived in Singapore for a year. It was a secondment and they had to pay for our accommodation otherwise they couldn't get anyone to go. I was 29, lived in a beautiful but small apartment. It's very clean and safe but humid and crowded. It's known as Disneyland with the Death Penalty due to some draconian laws and after a while does feel very constricted,

Expensive rent and supermarket food. Very cheap to eat at hawker markets though (also great food once you know where to go). I also felt a bit uncomfortable about the western male expats hooking up with the local girls. Kind of high end sex tourism.

It's also quite boring, I spent the last 6 months going away every weekend 😂

I agree. I don't live in the UK but it is the same in Ireland.
Our government seems to favour foreign developers who build to rent, over the people who vote for them and want to buy a home, in regards to housing policy.
When we were awash with money the government didn't build social housing, yet back in the so called hungry 1930s, when Ireland had just gained its independence and the 1940s, 1950s and 60s big council estates were built to improve the living conditions of the poorer people in the state.
We have a different breed of politicians now, sadly.

We have a different breed of politicians now, sadly.

I would go so far as to say it's a different species altogether.

Not to mention the fact that people going to live there are basically exploiting cheap labour in a poverty ridden country to 'live like a king' on their meagre UK pensions, as a previous poster nicely put it.

Are you willing to learn another language? There is no point in moving to another country and expecting to be part of a community, when you don't speak the language well.