Globally Rational

In the past 100 years, the US has established a reputation as one of the world’s best places to live. The best way to gauge this is by the fact that the US is the first choice for potential migrants in India, China, and all over the world. The obvious reason is that we have a strong economy… but so does Europe. So what differentiates the US?

Well, here are some factors that I believe are responsible for the rise of the US; please feel free to chime in if you can think of any others:

• Americans value economic freedom more than most European countries. Here, the rags-to-riches story is the American Dream.
• Despite the recent (especially post-9/11) restrictions, the US has established a reputation as a nation of immigrants whose diverse experiences come together to form a great nation. Individual European countries have a reputation for being more homogeneous.
• 100 years ago, the US was relatively neutral when it comes to international politics… this allowed us to have one of the world’s strongest militaries after Europe destroyed itself during the World Wars.
• Unlike crowded European countries, we have a lot of extra land lying around. The UK, for instance, has over 8 times the population density of the US.

I can only think of one other country that is following the same pattern. It may not be to the same extent, but I think that Australia will be the next big thing in world politics. At the moment, their population is too small to be considerable… but if they can get more people to show up, then they will become progressively more powerful:

• They value economic and personal freedom at least as much as we do.
• They still have a very friendly immigration policy, and it actually favors skilled migrants (from chemists to carpenters); as US immigration becomes more difficult, I think that more and more people will choose Australia as their destination. At the moment, 25% of people in Australia were born overseas.
• They are still relatively neutral with respect to military policy, partly thanks to their isolation. They probably won’t be able to get any real international power until their population is big enough to support a large military (that day is still at least 50-60 years away), but I think they’ll be able to do it.
• They have almost as much land lying around as the US. Although much of the land is unusable, they also have a much longer coastline than the US, even if you include Alaska/Hawaii… and most of it is usable and on the same landmass, unlike the other countries on the list that I linked.

They also have universal healthcare and a much more flexible society as a whole. I think Australia will be much more attractive for immigrants in the near future. Consider the following facts (and keep in mind that Australia has 1/15 the overall population of the US):

• Australia has 6 of the world’s top 50 universities. These universities are also much cheaper than their American counterparts, and they are attracting increasing numbers of qualified international students.
• Australia ranks #3, after Iceland and Norway, on the Human Development Index, which measures the world’s best overall places to live (the US is #12).
• Australia’s 5 major cities are all in the top 32 of Mercer’s list of the world’s best cities (and they all have a relatively low cost of living). The US only has two cities in that range (Honolulu at 27, San Francisco at 29), both of which are very expensive to live in.
• Australia ranks #4 on the Index of Economic Freedom (which measures economic opportunity in a country; this is the US’s strongest point), right behind Hong Kong, Singapore, and Ireland. The US is close behind at #5.
• Australia ranks #8 on the Democracy Index, which measures a country’s level of civil liberties; the US is #17.
• Australia ranks #28 on the Press Freedom Index, while the US is #48.

And I’m not taking these rankings out of context. Most quality-of-life studies put Australia near the top of the world. The only thing they need to do now is to have a big enough population so that they can amplify these effects. If their immigration policies take care of this issue, then they will be able to take unsuccessful Indians/Chinese and turn them into successful immigrants. If all goes well, we will end up with two world powers in science and economy… and in the process, they will make the world a much better place overall.

And that’s why I’m probably moving to Australia later this year.

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