Loved this article, knew these metrics were full of crap when I visited Sweden back in 2017 and found that it was biting cold, full of bad food, and the culture quite conformist. It was definitely well run and democratic, but it felt like the country was trying to run a perfect simulation of what a modern socialist state based on human rights would look like, and kind of forgot what it was like to actually be human.

I’m an American expat who—after trump was elected—traveled the world to find a new place to live, and interestingly enough chose Panama. Sure, the public services aren’t 100% and the government is corrupt, but the people and weather are warm, food cheap, and the lifestyle laid back, all more conducive to happiness than being in established political and economic markets arbitrarily approved by dissociated western eggheads to be where “happiness” is.

If there was a country that combined Scandinavia with Latin America, though, that would be the ideal (Portugal, maybe?). And even though I prefer Latin America, it’s never great to feel like your government hates you and secretly might tank the economy for no reason, so a reasonable baseline of security and democracy is definitely needed. I have hopes that will change here, though, with Costa Rica and Chile providing some evidence the younger generation will make latin America quite the paradise.