[patrickinator]

socially, probably the UK.

Economicall not sure, mix up of Japan, Germany, USA, Scandanavia and Switzerland.

[Cyanohydrin]

Sweden is not as advanced as people on here claim. I lived there for a number of years due to my dad's job and it is a lot different to public perception.

[Dirac Delta Function]

Military -US
Economy - US
Socially progressive -depends on what you consider progress to be on social matters. Probably some North European country, IMO.
Politically progressive
Etiquette/Manners - hard to say, pretty subjective.
Technology - US
Environment - Don't know.
Education - China at pre-uni, US at higher education and research.

Overall, I'd say the US.

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by The Mr Z)
Socially progressive - Norway/Sweden/UK/Netherlands

Politically progressive - Norway/Sweden

Overall winners on the philosophical/political advancement are Norway and Sweden for their political/social progressiveness

Right I lived in Sweden for two years and this open and tolerant thing is BS! All the Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Norway, Denmark and so on are much more racist than Britain. Sweden is depressingly racist, and the trumpeting of themselves as the great multicultural country is a total lie. All immigrants of colour are in, in effect, ghettoes, and there is no mixing at all. The Swedes tend to openly dislike non white immigrants in Sweden. People talk about the shootings in Norway, but it is little reported that there was a serial killer targeting immigrants in Malmo recently.

Sweden also had a eugenics programme and was second only to Nazi Germany in the amount of people who were sterilised under it. In fact, Sweden's eugenics programme is still remains in place today - but now the only group whom the state systematically sterilises is transsexual people. In Sweden an elected member of the Swedish parliament even praised a man who ran about shooting immigrants in Malmo! - a member of the SD.

If you just read TSR you'd get this weird impression of the UK - i.e. that it is the most racist nation evahh!! It doesn't seem to matter to them the French vote in 10 times the numbers for the far-right, or that people like Jorg Haider have actually been in power in Austria, or the True Finns in Finland, or the Danish Peoples Party and so on and on.

It is also an amazingly boring place, and Swedes are so reserved and shy it is ridiculous. Sweden is not really progressive, and although there are loads of social democrats, they do not hold the majority in parliament at the moment. The misunderstanding regarding Sweden's progressiveness stems from early sex-ed movies that used legal loopholes to show live sex in "mainstream" movies. These were all gobbled up by an even more sexually repressed world and 40 years later people still believe Sweden is a forward thinking country. You are more likely to become an astronaut in your lifetime than win in court against the Swedish police. There are known cases of cops killing civilians (google Osmo Vallo ) by standing on his back, in front of multiple witnesses, without any other repercussions other than a minor fine (for letting their police-dog join in the killing). It is one of the most drug-repressive societies in the world. If the police think that you might be stoned, you can be dragged away to a police station for a blood sample or urine sample. This is sometimes put into system at certain clubs, where large parts of the clientele could find themselves being brutalised by cops before the evening is over. The police do not need warrants to search your person or your premises and can use any kind of evidence against you , even though it has been illegally obtained.

Environment - Norway/Sweden/Canada (would have had Japan here before they shut off all their nuclear reactors and switched back to fossil fuels)

The very same Canada that withdrew from the Kyoto Treaty and is destroying the environment extracting oil from the tar sands?

[Dirac Delta Function]

(Original post by patrickinator)
socially, probably the UK.

Economicall not sure, mix up of Japan, Germany, USA, Scandanavia and Switzerland.

You've got to be kidding.

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Dirac Delta Function)
You've got to be kidding.

Why not?

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Welsh_insomniac)
I would probably vote for Germany or Switzerland but I can't overlook Sweden, Norway or Denmark either.

What is so advanced about Switzerland? Do you mean that their trains run on time and the streets are clean?

Regards being open and tolerant most countries beat Switzerland which is xenophobic and full of bigots - in terms of excitement and creativity even boring countries like Norway beat Switzerland...?

[Dirac Delta Function]

(Original post by Cyanohydrin)
Why not?

This country is riddled with social problems, from high divorce rates, to alcoholism, domestic violence, inter-community racial and religious tensions, and a very, very disgruntled working class. The riots last year were just a minor symptom of this.

[S1L3NTPR3Y]

Israel??
They require massive assistance from the USA, and is a tiny nation where war and terrorist attacks are very frequent, not to mention they knock down homes which families (Palestinians only) have lived in for generations.
And they have a GDP per capita lower than Spain

[Cannotbelieveit]

The UK is definitely more socially and politically advanced than the US.

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Dirac Delta Function)
This country is riddled with social problems, from high divorce rates,

Not hugely different to the rest of Europe (and lower than the USA, Denmark etc)

to alcoholism,

Well recorded alcohol consumption among adults is lower in the UK than in Ireland, France, Germany, France, Austria etc. Deaths related to alcohol abuse are not that bad - apart from predictably in Scotland (see graph below).

domestic violence,

I am not aware violence against women is particularly a problem restricted to the UK?

Any stats to suggest we are particularly any worse than the rest of Europe?

inter-community racial and religious tensions,

These are the same all over Europe. You reckon the Turks are integrated in Germany? You think it is any different in Sweden? France? The Netherlands? The UK has much smaller openly racist political parties and the highest rate of mixed race children in the world - and mixed race individuals are predicted to be the largest minority group by 2020.

and a very, very disgruntled working class.

Yes, I'll give you that.

[Sternumator]

Military- I don't count this because it is not an objective to have a big miltary. Everyone with nuclear weapons is equally dangerous, those on the list without nuclear weapons could develop them if they had a reason for wanting them. Other than nuclear weapons all those on the list have access to the best weapons availible.
Economy- USA
Socially progressive- Depends on your politcal views
Politically progressive- Depends on your politcal views
Etiquette/Manners- This is a really stupid thing to have on the list. You cant base how devloped a country is on how much they adopt western culture.
Technology- Thanks to globalisation all those countries have the same technology. Who develops the most the technology I don't know but that doesnt really matter.
Environment- What does this mean? You cant really have an advanced environment and I don't count forcing your people to use dimmer light bulbs etc as more advanced.
Education- USA

So I voted USA.

[the mezzil]

KAZAKHSTAN!!!!!!!! All other countries are run by little girls.

[ShredMaster]

(Original post by RyanT)
Overall Germany. I think the USA has an edge on military technology but consists of far too many backward states to be a contender for the overall. Japan gets an honourable mention.

I have no idea what India is doing on that list. It is actually kind of offensive to all the other nations on the list to put India alongside them.

Scandinavia is very nice, but it would be nothing without Europe. Germany could relocate to Africa and in a few decades match its current prosperity.

No its more offensive that the UK is on that list tbh. Also the most most advanced would be Iraq I daresay. Because their everything is just the best!!!!!

!!!
!!!
!!!

[Rhadamanthus]

(Original post by S1L3NTPR3Y)
Israel??
They require massive assistance from the USA, and is a tiny nation where war and terrorist attacks are very frequent, not to mention they knock down homes which families (Palestinians only) have lived in for generations.
And they have a GDP per capita lower than Spain

It's not really a stretch of the imagination to at least consider Israel in the economy/technology category. The country has had to do without natural resources and has managed to develop a large solar-power system (over 90% of homes use it for heating water). Its computing and software development centres are the most productive outside of the USA, which is why many useful things like the USB stick, drip irrigation that has helped millions of farmers in the Far East, etc. In terms of the economy the country has the most NASDAQ listed companies outside of the USA and had a growth of 4.8% last year (compared to Britain's 1.1%). It fares quite well on international rankings when you consider its size - it was ranked first in its supply of skilled manpower.

Alas, for the other categories I'd say Israel hardly has a chance. It's not the most politically or socially progressive nation on the list, and despite having a very powerful military it is embroiled in a decades-long conflict that doesn't look as if it's going to be resolved any time soon.

[Dirac Delta Function]

(Original post by Cyanohydrin)
Not hugely different to the rest of Europe (and lower than the USA, Denmark etc)



Well recorded alcohol consumption among adults is lower in the UK than in Ireland, France, Germany, France, Austria etc. Deaths related to alcohol abuse are not that bad - apart from predictably in Scotland (see graph below).





I am not aware violence against women is particularly a problem restricted to the UK?

Any stats to suggest we are particularly any worse than the rest of Europe?



These are the same all over Europe. You reckon the Turks are integrated in Germany? You think it is any different in Sweden? France? The Netherlands? The UK has much smaller openly racist political parties and the highest rate of mixed race children in the world - and mixed race individuals are predicted to be the largest minority group by 2020.



Yes, I'll give you that.

Socially, Canada seems much more successful than the UK. Even within Europe, Scandinavia by and large fares better.

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Dirac Delta Function)
Socially, Canada seems much more successful than the UK. Even within Europe, Scandinavia by and large fares better.

Have you ever been to Scandinavia? I have lived in Sweden and it has the exact same tensions regarding identity and immigration - issues around alcohol abuse and so on. Are you actually going to offer any statistics to back up all these claims?

[Dirac Delta Function]

(Original post by Cyanohydrin)
Have you ever been to Scandinavia? I have lived in Sweden and it has the exact same tensions regarding identity and immigration - issues around alcohol abuse and so on. Are you actually going to offer any statistics to back up all these claims?

the statistics you posted show Canada is better.

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Dirac Delta Function)
the statistics you posted show Canada is better.

I have no idea if Canada is "better". I have never lived in Canada.

Most of the west is a muchness and I don't see much difference between any of it tbh. Apart from the bible belt most people and places are fairly similar in protestant northern europe and the anglosphere. any comparisons are going to be over fairly insignificant differences. Is living in Exeter hugely different to living in a city of 100,000 in Sweden or New Zealand? Is living in London much different really to living in Paris or Toronto? Is Aberdeen, Scotland much different to Dunedin, NZ? Nah I don't think so.

[style]

Singapore should be on that list. I would guess Germany, Singapore and Japan,