
Website calculates how your life might be like in another country. - ck2
http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/
======
david927
This is like comparing whether you would like Diane Krall or Bob Marley based
on beats-per-minute. Why do people have such a struggle separating qualitative
from quantitative?

I'm American but I've lived in six countries: the richest was easily
Switzerland, the most frustrating was easily France, but for me, the best was
easily the Czech Republic. Hands down; no competition. But that's me. And the
only way you can ever know which one you'll like best is to live there and go
native. If you listen to Diane Krall waiting for it to start turning into the
Arctic Monkeys, you won't like it. Most tourists and expats keep expecting the
new country to be their old country with a different language. It's simply a
different beast, and until you can lose yourself, lose your expectations, you
won't know.

~~~
maayank
may you please elaborate more on why the Czech Republic wins hands down?

~~~
david927
The first time I went to Prague, I was so blown away that I canceled the next
stops on my itinerary so I could stay. Later, after I moved there, I realized
it was the whole country that just hit me in the right spot. There are no
reasons; it just happened. Like with my wife, it was just love at first site.
Love doesn't have enumerable reasons; it just is.

~~~
maayank
Borrowing PG's terminology/idea from <http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html>,
what would be the message of Prague/your favorite city there?

~~~
david927
For Prague it's "create". Everyone I knew was in some form or stage of the
creative process, whether film, music, play writing, painting, starting a
company, etc. It may a Czech or expat, it may have been on the side or what
they did full-time, but everyone was doing something creative and new.

------
meterplech
I think the problem with comparing the United States with other countries in
general- specifically Sweden/Norway or even the UK or Canada is that the
United States is just so much bigger. So, the characteristics of the "average"
person are hardly representative (obviously). It's hard to imagine that this
site can adequately compare life in two places. A better comparison may be
single metropolitan area or state. I.e I think it would be more relevant to
compare NYC with London, or Massachusetts with Sweden.

To the credit of the website though, it is cleanly designed and pretty
interesting to play with. Cool.

~~~
axod
Definitely be interesting, but I think many of the figures would remain the
same. The lack of state provided health care exists whether you look at the US
or only NY.

It'd be nice to get some user contributed/voted on facts as well on the
website... for example (some of my own):

    
    
      US: You can't buy good cheese or chocolate
      GB: You can't buy good milkshakes or burgers

~~~
arethuza
The taste of American chocolate has always puzzled me - apparently it is down
to butyric acid:

<http://www.rps.psu.edu/0009/chocolate.html>

~~~
axod
It tastes like they completely forgot to add sugar or milk. It's like eating
raw cocoa, or cheap hot chocolate powder.

~~~
sp332
Freshness counts for a lot. I've seen that happen with chocolate that has
melted and then re-solidified in the package. It's kind of powdery and dry,
and it doesn't taste right. Visiting the amusement park & chocolate factory in
Hershey, PA is probably the only time I was impressed by Hershey's chocolate.
Some of it was still warm :-)

------
fookyong
HIV rate in Japan is 0.1%

HIV rate in Singapore is 0.2%

The app tells me I am _100%_ more likely to get HIV in Singapore... which I
guess is technically right but it certainly doesn't sound very inviting...

~~~
torme
Yeah, the percentage statistics are worded kind of oddly. I tried spain, which
has about 18% unemployment rate vs the US's 9%. It tells me I have a 94%
greater chance of being unemployed in spain. It took me a couple seconds to
get my head around the meaning of that.

It seems like a better wording might be something along the lines of "You're
2x more likely to be unemployed", or something to that extent.

------
tzury
<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/IL/US>

If The United States were your home instead of Israel you would...

    
    
      - spend 2.3 times more money on health care
      - use 97.95% more electricity
      - consume 96.7% more oil
      + make 63.38% more money
      - be 5 times more likely to have HIV/AIDS
      - have a 47.24% greater chance of dying in infancy
      - have 29.11% fewer babies
      - have a 25.68% greater chance of being unemployed
      - experience 14.8% more of a class divide
      - die 2.62 years sooner
    

Q) Would you rather live in The United States?

A) No. I would simply try to find a way to "make 63.38% more money" where I
live now, as the rest of list seems like US is not a better place to live.

But US is not San Francisco or New York right?

So perhaps, the comparison should not be made country-wide.

As I would definitely rather live in the bay area than in Tel Aviv where I
live right now.

~~~
oscardelben
I'm surprised that longevity in the US is lower than many other countries (the
same is true for Italy as well). I wonder if the food industry and the obesity
problem contributed to this problem.

~~~
patrickgzill
Once you adjust for poor blacks and Mexican illegal immigrants, the US is
fine. The poor health care, nutrition choices, and young people being shot
skews the statistics.

If you are a "white" person the stats are as good or better.

This post is not racist; other countries have relatively homogeneous
populations, the US does not.

~~~
msluyter
IMHO, despite your disclaimer, I still think your post is racist because it's
blacks and hispanics who are _skewing_ the statistics, rather than the other
way round. There's an assumed perspective -- the white one -- as the default,
or proper, perspective.

~~~
patrickgzill
The parent post mentioned Italy, which has a large percentage of white people
in it.

------
resdirector
Hilarious the green/red colouring scheme which I presume means good/bad. Take
for example Australia vs Democratic Republic of the Congo:

<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/AU/CD>

Democratic Republic of the Congo spends 99.39% less on health care = good...?

~~~
yummyfajitas
The app is probably tuned to developed countries.

Within developed countries, the marginal utility of extra health care is close
to zero. Spending more on health care is as likely to harm you as it is to
help you. Since the benefit of extra spending is nil, it makes sense to focus
on the cost.

As you note, once you get into the regime where marginal utility of extra
health care is positive, this method of comparison makes little sense.

------
ck2
I'm curious if the expression _"grass is greener on the other side of the
fence"_ is universal or just something we say in the states?

Would have been a good domain name ( _IsTheGrassGreener .com_ ) but that's not
to criticize on the content or presentation, very well done (and seems to be
dealing with quite a load this morning).

~~~
unwind
One data point: Swedish has a very closely worded idiom: "Gräset är inte
alltid grönare på andra sidan", which translates back as "The grass is not
always greener on the other side".

~~~
rufus_t
No. Like in English, it's "Gräset är alltid grönare på andra sidan"/"the grass
is always greener on the other side". You should interpret it as "the grass on
the other side always looks greener than it actually is". Your version is
sometimes used as an after-the-fact statement that something didn't work out
as planned, but it's not the traditional form.

~~~
ck2
According to wikipedia, French has this expression too.

Fascinating. Must be a very old expression.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I thought it was from the story of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff". I don't know
if that is the origin of if the story was built around the idiom. Seems a
possible etymology though.

------
adaml_623
Fail. This website doesn't calculate it just presents stats and it doesn't ask
me about my life so it's not even a valid comparison.

More importantly it mutilates statistics. The unemployment rate for western
countries is very different to the unemployment rate for 3rd world countries.
Can't really compare them.

------
madsr
I find it interesting that by following the green/red color code, apparently,
the less you spend on health care the better. Is health care a bad thing?

~~~
davidmat
Probably the site's author sees it from the PoV that it's just too expensive
in the US. Other systems offer the same level of health care, at a far lower
cost to the patient.

------
axod
Nice :)

<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/GB/US>

eg go to the US if you want money, UK if you want quality of life.

Surprised at this though "The number of adults living with HIV/AIDS in The
United States is 0.60% while in The United Kingdom it is 0.20%."

~~~
arethuza
"go to the US if you want money, UK if you want quality of life"

Don't you think that is just a _bit_ of a sweeping generalization?

~~~
axod
Isn't that the whole point of the website? To make sweeping generalizations
about entire countries?

------
jawns
This is kind of similar to a little app I created a couple of years ago called
the Homeland Re-Assigner:

<http://pressbin.com/homeland>

From the app description:

"We're born into our native countries by the luck of the draw. The Homeland
Re-Assigner uses world population data to simulate this process. It produces
statistically accurate representations of where else you might have ended up.
Countries are weighted according to their current populations. So, for
example, you're more likely to end up in a country with a large population,
e.g. China, India, or the United States, than a country with a smaller
population."

Obviously, though, IfItWereMyHome.com is a lot more robust and much prettier.

------
beoba
Oh god a link cloud, I wish people would stop using those.

Also, <http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/FI> recommends Tom of Finland
books to learn more about Finland.

------
isani
The front page colors change based on where you're from. A nice idea, but many
of the color combinations are unreadable. Finland has dark grey on dark blue,
for example.

------
vixen99
Maybe some will like this but for me it's pointless regurgitation of easily
available irrelevant data. (that does not apply to me because I wasn't born
and bred in that country)

What would be interesting would be, given my present wealth and general
status, how would life be for <me> in that country if I moved. In Romania for
instance, I live (taking into account all the factors whioh matter to me) a
much higher quality of life than I did in the UK.

------
known
I think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility> also plays an important
role.

    
    
        You can move from one *class* to another in USA(e.g Obama could become President)
        You must not move from one *caste* to another in your life time in India(e.g. Ambedkar could not become Prime Minister)

------
fakelvis
Very interesting and nicely executed, even if the methodology does have its
limitations (I won't repeat what meterplech has said).

It would be interesting if you could enter some of your demographic data and
get a more specific comparison (e.g. gender, sexual preference, age, race,
education level).

That might bring up some more drastic and surprising comparisons.

------
ry0ohki
Health care would cost me 99% less in Malawi, because there is none? I'd use
99% less electricity too, so green!

------
protomyth
I think the coarse grain comparison of this site makes it pretty poor.
Comparing the whole of one country to another is naive. Different areas of
each country can have totally different living conditions. Also, your social
class has a lot to do with your position in a country.

------
fastviper
Know how to count? Count on yourself, not averages. Every free capitalist
democratic country gives great opportunities to be rich and have a lot of free
time.

Especially for hackers.

PS: the site states that the less income inequalities, the better. Quite
contrary is actually much better option for any country.

------
qasar
<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/PK> Its good to be an immigrant,
though the class divide number is surprising.

Also, the "more information sections" are written well - anyone know the
source?

------
xiaoma
> _If Canada were your home instead of The United States you would...

experience 28.67% less of a class divide

use 27.2% more electricity

have 25.67% more fewer babies

..._

25.67% more fewer babies? Awesome! But whoever let that phrase through wasn't
exactly the quickest zergling in the control group... if you catch my meaning.

------
copper
<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/IN/CA>

I /think/ that the way likelihood of HIV/AIDS is calculated needs to take
population into account in a better way. Fun comparison, though!

------
oceanician
Great site. Be cool if it included average weather - sun vs rain or something
like that?

------
Gizzle
While the site itself is nice designed and I enjoy playing with various
countries, I see that the main purpose for designing this site are the amazon
links below the comparison. Am I right?

------
eapen
www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/IN

Says there is 18.22% less of a class divide in India - but IMO, India has a
way higher class divide than in the US. I dont buy a lot of these stats.

------
alinajaf
The website doesn't say anything about how much you would like living in a
particular country, which is entirely subjective. It just compares stats.

------
vic_nyc
I found it interesting that in Germany you are expected to make 25% less than
in the U.S., but you have 25% more free time! :)

------
Joakal
<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/AU/US>

It's missing YCombinator :(

------
kaerast
The site's slow loading and keeps segfaulting Google Chrome on Ubuntu 10.10
for me. I like the idea though.

------
beefman
You're doing it wrong <http://i.min.us/ibZWRM.png>

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adaml_623
I suspect that this website doesn't do caching on its comparison pages.

~~~
beowulfe
I made this site. I do cache the comparison pages, but I actually started
hitting the bitrate cap on my slice. I moved a bunch of the images and other
static content to S3 this morning to help out.

------
NZ_Matt
oh well, I guess I'll settle for less money if it also means less AIDS.

<http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/NZ/AU>

------
redthrowaway
Wow. It's like I put a tag cloud on my website, then when I wasn't looking it
went and had sex with every tag cloud in town. When I turned around _oh my god
tag clouds everywhere_. It's like the Tribbles of web features.

I'm sure that could have been implemented better. Cool idea, though.

