Yeah, I dont know how you guys up there do it unless its money passed on from generation to generation. You can be a hard working guy, did all the right things school, decent job and still maybe never get a chance at a decent home in the city limits. A perb person once said take away the mountains and water and Vancouver is probably a shitty place to live. I dont know either whats Vancouver's real economy. Asian restaurants? Lots of 4 star hotels? I say remittance money from Asia is the # 1 economy in Vancouver.
If I didnt buy my place when I did 13 years ago now, I don't know if I'd still live here. I got my condo for a quarter what its worth now. I cant imagine started out fresh out of college, with even modest student loan debt. You would have a higher standard of living in say Winnipeg, working at a $40,000/yr job. Compared to $100,000 here.
If Vancouver represented Canada as a whole...the ranking would be 100th at best.
It would state...Vancouver is a complete ripoff city with the avg house being just under a million dollars and the city has virtually no real economy. Thousands of women are SPs since they can't afford to live in the city earning $11 an hour as a receptionist...
The rankings does seem to use income as a big part of it. But I have been to a couple of these countries as well as a lot of Europe. I do think they are happier there in general. But its not all money. People there often work less. Like Spain, many people really do take the afternoon off.
Like 4 hours work, 3 hour lunch, then another 2 hours work. The French get more vacation days then we do. I get 4 weeks, and thats more than most people. Kid out of school will get more over there.
I met a girl in Amsterdam, she gets summers off. Here you have to be a teacher do get that. Or make enough to be able to take that much time off.
She was a bank teller at ING. Had a cool apartment walking distance from the heart of Amsterdam. Heads down to the the south of france for part of the summer.
I guess here in Canada, we have a safe country. We dont really worry about any war, or things like getting kidnapped walking to the store.
But most people don't get enough time off work to do things they would enjoy. Most of my buddies don't really have any serious hobbies, just no time.
I notice these rankings dont have the larger European countries?