Ask HN: If you were 20 again, what country would you choose?

17 points

12 years ago

I'm curious, if you were 20 again and could choose any country on earth to start from scratch, what country would you choose thinking it would best enable you to build an "empire" for the next 10 generations after you?

As people from different countries and backgrounds will try to answer this question, I would really appreciate a detailed answer as to why you pick any country. The goal here is to find out more about how people see things and find out often missed or unknown facts about the great countries of the world. I'm especially curious about some contrarian views. Another way to put it would be, what countries do best satisfy the criteria below, but are not so heavily marketed and kept under the radar?

I think these would be the most important factors I would take into account:

   - Friendliness toward entrepreneurship/businesses/startups
   - Serious intellectual life
   - Good education system
   - Good healthcare system
   - Good quality of life
   - Beautiful landscapes

Please also see the list below before you answer:

   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-born_Index
   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_most_liveable_cities
   - http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life

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