re: alan
My 'best' comment was aimed at certain aspects of the United States and not at general living conditions.
Australia is a good place to live and I am very happy here, but it is not perfect. If I had millions and millions and millions of dollars I would divide my time between Melbourne, Honolulu, Hawaii and Japan.
I think some of the 'problems' in Australia are:
1. The price of houses and land (especially land) are in La-La land. Melbourne and suburbs are terrible. (But Melbourne is a GREAT place to live - BEST place in Australia. Now that I have made the other 70% of Australia mad at me, I'll continue). Prices seem to be worse than in Japan.
2. Taxes are too high.
3. The food could be of better quality - both produce and meals (Hawaii is even worse except for a few places like Tony Romas). It takes too long to find really good places to buy high quality produce and also good places to eat. Once you find them, it seems that the quality changes and you have to look for other places again. (The Flower Drum in Melbourne has very, very good Peking Duck and the roast duck is very good too).
4. There is a lot of discrimination in Australia - something I was quite surprised at after living in Japan. I expected it in Japan and was able to work the system in most situations. (Trying to get a loan in Japan regardless of your income or asset levels is difficult.) I also find the 'tall poppy' syndrome and class envy to be very bad here.
5. While not on the scale of the US, the drug and crime stats are worse than in Japan.
