Rate Your Country's Future

Using your own opinion and knowledge of about your country, evaluate how well you see your country and hometown/state doing in the future using the following criterion:

1. Economy

2. Social and Political Stability

3. Population Growth and Density Issues

4. Environmental security (arguably the most important)

5. Any other factors you deem important

I'll start with my home country Canada, as well as Toronto as a city.

1. Canada's economy is doing very well as of late, and experts predict that Northern countries (Canada and Russia mainly) will grow stronger over time as resources are made more accessible by climate change. It will be similar to the Pacific Rim boom of the 20th century. Toronto has a bright futre as the hub of a strong country. One consquence will be even higher costs of living.

2. While I'm not happy with Canadian politics right now, I can certainly say that Canadian democracy is very strong. It consistently scores in the highest level on the democracy index. Toronto was rated the 4th most livable city in the world by The Economist, and I percieve nothing that would affect that status in the future.

3. Canada will continue to grow at a steady rate if immigration lasts. Density is not an issue at all. Toronto especially relies on immigration, and is neither too dense like Delhi nor sparse like Detroit.

4. Canada is one of the few countries that will actually benefit from climate change. Toronto would be mostly fine: the Great Lakes won't rise and won't shrink, and the climate will stay tolerable.

Overall, I foresee my home being an even better (although expensive) place to live in the future. I'd give Canada a 9/10, and Toronto a 10/10.

edited 8th May '11 1:07:25 PM by Erock

Britain:

1. Economy: Grim. Our private and public society is up to the brim with debt, meaning millions must be wasted on interest payments. We lack an industrial base, meaning we can only get poorer, not richer, and as time goes on, the rest of Europe will surely begin to leave us behind, as France and Germany have done and surely Italy will do so soon.

2. Social and Political Stability: Positive. Britain is pretty resilient and we've stayed away from the right wing trends plaguing the rest of Europe. The incompetence of our main parties mean we probably won't be blessed with great cohesiveness and excellent leadership, but we'll probably avoid the worst social problems. We're plagued by a lack of great, rather than good, leadership. Scotland, in particular, is especially well appointed.

3. Population Growth and Density Issues: Britains population is mostly rising due to steady immigration; our native birth rates are actually declining. Last time I checked anyway. Last time I checked we weren't straining for space, and anyway Japan seems to be doing alright, so I'm really not that scared on that front. I don't see anything that really troubles me here, as long as the bigots don't mess everything up.

4. Environmental security (arguably the most important): We're unlikely to end up underwater and don't experience other kinds of natural disaster. We're surrounded by allies and have a solid, if delapidated, army that can be brought up to scratch in a crisis. Britain is safe.

Overall: Britain is mainly hampered by its struggling economy and (comparatively) weak industry, compared to the continental nations. We'll probably always have adequate wealth, but we're being steadily and inexorably overtaken. We have one major advantage over other nations however, in that our political and social structure is extremely stable.

edited 8th May '11 2:03:12 PM by GameChainsaw

US:

Economic: Subpar, but even at its worst wouldn't approach situations you'd see outside of a first-world country. It's bad for our track record, but on a greater scale we're actually doing pretty well.

Political stability: This is the worst one. Parties are so fucking polarized right now that they can barely (if at all) talk to each other, and tempers are high. I kind of feel like the political equivalent of Maury is sitting in the corner passive-aggressively egging everyone on toward a fistfight.

Population: Birth rates are falling, and most of our growth is immigration. This is actually pretty close to ideal if we can just get it a bit lower — we'd get the population fall without a horrible impact on our work force.

Eco: Bad, only mitigated by the fact that we have so much open space to work with. We're still using a shitload of coal, WTF. Not really any nice way around gasoline for rural areas for the near future.

7/10 overall — I can think of plenty of places that put all of these things to shame, but we've got a lot of room for improvement.

I don't really buy into national identity, but I'll rate every country I've been in.

PRC:

1. Overrated. China has decent growth, but the government fabricates some of it (more like 5-6 than 10-12, which is still pretty good). It's definitely going to nosedive simply because the growth of the Chinese people is slowing down and will crash soon. China is facing the largest demographic crunch in human history, and it's going to hurt horribly. Also, unlike the rest of China, Dunhwa isn't much richer than it was ten years ago, and that's not probably not going to change.

2. Yeah not the best Gun n Roses album. But seriously, it doesn't look good. Lots of social fragmentation. All of the ruling party legitimacy is built on economic growth and that isn't going to last for much longer. When the economy downturns, a lot of the elderly are going to be in trouble, especially since the ones with the fewest children are urbanites who have generally ingested the most modern-western cultural ideas, so their children are the least likely to support them. This is an unprecedented social crisis. Traditional culture has barely started to recover from the Maoist era and the dual daggers of urbanization and Western culture might finish what that era started.

3. Well, population growth is really the problem. When the birth rate in some cities drops from 6+ to 1, there's going to be a huge problem. A lot of rural families are having reasonable number of kids (2 or 3), but urban dwellers have discarded a lot of family values. Some cities even have a birthrate of under 1. Of course, high urban land prices hurt, but it's not at all the sole factor.

4. Not really important yet. I fear the growth of a predatory elite forming in the cities and preying on the peasants with some kind of Malthusian environmental ideology as the urban classes

5. Inequality is really growing. Unlike Japan, South Korea, and the ROC (Taiwan), the PRC doesn't really care about rural people. Obviously, the lack of a democracy definitely is a large part of this. The CCP is really currently dominated by Westernized urban elites from the wealthy southern coast who only really refer to tradition to justify their monopoly of power. Quality of life has dramatically exploded for some, but it definitely lags behind, especially for traditional non-materialistic communities.

3/10 - Pretty much everything is weak except economic growth and society is collapsing, and economic growth isn't even that good, but hey, economic growth is still pretty decent. And in the end, China just has a lot of people and will be important. City gets a 0/10 though.

Japan:

1. Absolutely awful. They can't get their spending under control, and this has been a long-building problem ever since the US occupiers empowered several dangerous interest groups. Private investment is crowding out, so there's not really any room for growth because the financial system is a mess. No room for growth at all. Yokohoma's a great city though.

2. Definitely a huge problem. The US occupation left a legacy of a radical opposition in policy which has hamstringed Japanese politics since. It's been difficult for serious political reform in Japan without groups like the Rengo and Nikkyo raising havoc. Koizumi, as horribly maligned as he is for stuff like Yasukuni, I think was actually a pretty good prime minister, and the current LDP was pretty much wiped of Koizumi supporters in 2009. The DPJ is just embarrassingly incompetent and pretty much has stymied every positive reform out there, from postal reform to employment reform to social security reform. Plus, thanks to Article IX, Japan still isn't even capable of defending itself.

3. An absolute disaster. Actually better than China, but when compounded with economic stagnation, it's still pretty damn bad. The birth rate is even worse than China (although the drop isn't as bad), and it's really the low birth rate that will spell the end of Japan as an important nation. If there were 1 billion Japanese in the world, everyone would speak Japanese, but the real number is much less, and will continually decline. Materialism is rampant with the "New Japanese", and today's young just aren't responsible toward their obligations.

4. The damage has already been done. The rise of the environmental lobby in the 70's definitely hamstringed the LDP from a lot of good policy and they were forced to respond to damaging socialist political assaults. Not a serious issue, except for the Sea Shepherd crowd, who the current Japanese government is still too cowardly and appeasement-friendly to capture or kill.

2/10 - for Japan overall. The dwindling population and decaying society will pretty much make Japan irrelevant. City gets a 3/10 though.

USA:

1. Not great. A lot of the fundamentals of the US economy are good, like a strong business tradition and relatively good business climate. But this is steadily growing worse as spending gluts are eliminating wealth. The business climates in a lot of places are terrible and in the places where they are good, they're getting steadily worse. NYC is pretty bad for business, but that's because of the large socialist element there. Bloomberg is actually doing a pretty good job, he brings a well-needed shot of technocracy into a very emotions-based political system.

2. The problem is that the US is really following a Schumpterian model. The capitalism of the US created a lot of prosperity, but it also encouraged materialism and the creation of an intellectual class that is the backbone of the radical socialist agenda in America. America is generally losing all of the things that made their society strong (religious consciousness, entrepreneurial sentiment, nonintrusive government), while keeping all of the things that make it weak (materialism, violence/crime, promiscuity, weak families). Most of the good things about doing business in America are going to be wiped away by democracy, and they can't make any reforms. Just look at every attempt to fix broken things in America, like social security, medicare, immigration, and their foreign policy.

3. Decent, but it could be better. Padded by a reasonably large (albeit dwindling) religious group and moderate levels of immigration. It's still a drop in the birth rate, which will ultimately bankrupt the US because of how the US welfare state works, but in absolute terms its not so bad.

4. The US is looking bad. There's a growing environmental elite that has really amalgamated with the radical socialist element in the USA and is positioned pretty well to plunder the rest of the nation. America has a lot of natural resources, but they're not using them well, and they probably won't be able to use them later.

4/10 - Strong population situation and a strong business situation. But American society and culture is very degenerate and weak, and American family is almost a misnomer. It's very much become an entitlement society, and these two will probably work to undermine the first parts.

Canada:

1. Decent, but could be much better. Going to have some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the Western world which will help create a pro-business environment. Harper will probably be able to build a long-enduring government, the Tories are pretty much the natural party of government now. Nothing really wrong with the financial system, and the immigration system is strong and will attract much foreign talent. The only problems is that disaster of a possible socialist (NDP) takeover, but I don't view it as very likely, especially since the Tories are strong in the vibrant growing parts of Canada (Ontario and the West), as opposed to the decrepit Old Canada. Vancouver is one of Canada's leading cities, probably only eclipsed by Toronto, by being a major immigration destination and being economically vibrant. Politics looks good, but the recent surge of the NDP is quite scary, but I hope the Liberals will rise again to displace the NDP.

2. Kind of mixed. A lot of the same things that go for the US go for Canada. In fact, almost all of the same things. Except I suppose not so much of the violence. Canada's advantage I think, is that it was never a "slave country", so it doesn't really have this underclass that America has. This definitely helps social cohesion, and ethnic minorities in Canada generally seem much more reasonable than shrill minorities in America. Minorities are a serious problem in America, but Canadian minorities tend to be talented immigrants or descendents, as opposed to a racial underclass. And I think a lot of these minorities offer shots of traditional values; I've actually been really recently impressed by the family cohesion of immigrants from South Asia. Well, I've actually read an eye-opening report in the Globe and Mail about endemic poverty in Nunavut, but it's not really that important since Nunavut is so small. A lot of the same problems in the US, hold in Canada, especially because of how profoundly derivative culture in Canada is of culture in Canada.

3. Decent. Lower natural birth rate than the United States, but it makes it up with higher levels of immigration. And the Canadian welfare state is generally better administrated than the American welfare state, which kinda just throws money around blindly. So it's financially solvent.

4. Same problem as in the United States. The Western provinces are especially vulnerable to environmentalist plundering.

6.5/10 - Generally good but a few dangers. Vancouver gets a 9/10.

edited 8th May '11 10:30:03 PM by Tsukubus

It's odd that you say that Canada's financial system is stable when the reason for that is that it's more little-c conservative (I.E. tightly regulated) than anywhere in the States, which you decry about New York.

As someone on both sides of the border. Canada is in good shape overall. Natural resources are opening up, and believe it or not global warming is probably more of a benefit than a bad thing for Canada itself (which is insane of course. I'm not that patriotic). A very little-c conservative structure for things such as finance and health care also promote a lot of stability in rough times. Finally, urban locations have quite good urban design, mass transit, etc. There are still a lot of rural places, but generally speaking it's not that much of a problem. Future—8/10

The US is...not in good shape. Basically everything Canada has going for it the US has going against it. But to be honest, everything else could be pretty much equal but the piss poor urban design in most places in the US puts her in deep deep trouble as transport energy prices rise. The reason I say this is that you can fix everything else but this probably is an unsolvable issue, or at least a realistically solvable issue. How bad will it get? I suspect that we'll eventually see a surtax on urban citizens in order to fund heavy gas subsidies for non-urban commuters. (Not something I support at all) 2/10

edited 8th May '11 10:40:02 PM by Karmakin

All countries will die and we will all live thankfully happily ever after.

The End.

USA

1. The current situation is bad, but the country has seen worse and recovered. However, that's not counting the federal debt, which I regard as a bigger threat than an economic depression. Stagflation is likely to bring about a double - dip recession; ironically the main anti - inflation factor is the fact the working poor are starting to be unable to afford transportation costs.
2. What Pykrete said.
3. Some areas are approching overpopulation in regard to environmental stability. We'd actually have a stable population if it weren't for immigration, but the immagrants are also arguably a critical labor resource. However, on the whole it's still manageable.
4. Land area can actually be a negative, as cross country mass transit is not really economically viable, and we're a huge target for storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. On the plus side, people are used to disasters, and anything big enough to take out the U.S. would cause problems worldwide.
5. A Chinese ambassador said "you think outside the box like no one else in the world". I think we're loosing our touch.

3.5/10

Northeast Colorado:

1. Amung the best in the states, which actually isn't saying much.
2. The state is broke, but not wallowing in debt. The population is divided; different political and socioeconomic groups tend to keep to themselves rather than fight.
3. An issue, but not an overwhelming one.
4. High altitude protects against flooding. Drought is the main environmental threat, and it has the potential to be a catastrophic one, as aquifers are limited and shrinking, and the state is landlocked for desalination. On the other hand, the area has more natural resources than many entire nations - corn, oil, gas, uranium, wind, and solar.

6.5/10

edited 8th May '11 11:23:11 PM by FrodoGoofballCoTV

How do you rate something that has yet to occur?

I keep reading the title of this thread as "Rate Your Country's Failure". I'd give it a 10/10 on the Fail Scale. The latest survey shows that 90% of the youth wants to emigrate. Not all of them will do it, of course, but all my friends have already left, and this place definitely has absolutely no future.

^But what country is that?

edited 9th May '11 2:24:13 AM by petrie911

For Hungary:

1. Economy: Right now not that disastrous, people still manage to live day by day, but the government says there will be more and more cuts. If they actually happen, lots and lots of people will basically starve to death. There is no sign of any stimulus, and the government has no idea on how to do something constructive with the situation - they just say that there will be cuts.

2. Social and Political Stability - Oh, boy. The government did such horrible things since they rose to power (a year ago), that everyone, even the most die-hard fans of them are now cynical and pessimistic. Anything can happen from food riots to protests and revolution. It's anybody's guess. They have 3 more years on the top, but I think their reign will end somehow before that. Somehow...

3. Population Growth and Density Issues - Nothing much to speak of in this department, if anything, there are fewer and fewer kids every year.

4. Environmental security (arguably the most important) - Hungary has a very lucky and safe location: no earthquakes, no hurricanes or strong storms, no tsunamies(?)... There is a bit of a flood every spring, but it affects a small area and not that serious. Nothing bad is likely to happen in the near future.

Overall: The political stability is the most crucial point in Hungary's future. It all depends on how the people will tolerate the government's current actions...

Hungary is suffering food shortages?!

Has the EU gone deaf blind and dumb or something?!

No, not yet. The situation is more like that the price of food is rising fast, the government cuts the salary of the people (via raising some taxes), so if this goes on like this for a bit, it will create a situation in the near future when even food riots are possible.

I may exaggerated a bit, but as things look now, I say it's indeed possible.

So Hungary isn't facing a shortage of food, but one of social justice.

Precisely.

Australia:

Ironically the creator of the Mad Max franchise, is the least likely country to become Mad Max. Politically stable, gang wars infrequent except in Melbourne.

Entertainment goods are expensive but anime products stay in print longer. Video games and movies suffer minor censorship because of annoying fundamentalist minorities who seem to be losing ground. Our beaches are nice, wide variety of food to eat. Economy is okay compared to the rest of the world.

Despite dissatisfaction with current government, I am not gonna move because our health care kicks arse with the big boot from that Simpsons episode. The reason I've thrived for so long is probably because of our good health care.

We're basically America crossed with Britain by way of Tropical Beaches Setting. I don't mind living here.

The US.

1. Econ: Very Poor. Companies are closing factories and laying off workers, outsourcing those jobs. Unemployment is bad. The middle class is shrinking with most of the wealth of the country concentrating into very few people. Economic growth is slow, especially because of that last point. The standard of living is rising so high that many Americans can barely get by. All of which is compounded by the government deficits.

2. Soc/Pol: Terrible. Although crime is down, and civil rights have made great progress. The national dialogue is crammed with an absolute torrent of politicized and vitriolic garbage. The country has become so polarized people are comparing each other to Nazis and Communists. Corporations are taking advantage of our division to fan the flames of dissent, astroturfing our politics and buying out our representatives. Television has become such ratings whores that news is almost impossible to trust. Unless America makes moves to start a common rational discourse I really fear for the country.

3. Pop: Good. Luckily we don't suffer population crowding, America doesn't have lopsided age groups. Our infrastructure is crumbling and not as well able to support our population, but it hasn't gotten very bad yet. It has potential to start getting worse.

4. Env: Below Average. One of the worst environmental disasters in US history just recently occurred in the Gulf. Our regulatory system is very compromised with corruption. We're not doing enough to wean ourselves off of coal fired plants and oil. Not to mention we're still subsiding corn.

Overall: 5.5/10 There is A LOT we could be doing better. Things don't seem to be going very well for America, if we can keep those lunatic republicans out of office we'll have a solid chance to start improving things.

France :

Economy: average, we lose a lot of our manual work to foreign countries, but still somewhat manage to keep hi-tech and some industries.

Politics: with each day passing, the population is becoming more cynical, and both governing party and main opposition are just plain ridiculous. They know it, the public knows it, and everyone in the media keep trying to do as if they still had a slight bit of honesty and competence. The result? More and more people are moving to the far-right party, the National Front, just because they're fed up of the system and want to take it apart. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd get a V Ith republic in a few years, and, honestly, I don't know if it would be a bad thing. In a nutshell, the situation is: a right-wing party not really knowing where it should stand, conservative or far-right, and displease both groups while looking like a bunch of jerks, and a left-wing with self-righteous hypocrites who talk about solidarity from their luxury flats and using "viewers are morons"-kind of demagogy.

Oh, and, one thing interesting there is that both the right- and left-wing party highest members are all (or nearly) ex-students of the same prestigious school (the ENA), and one can wonder if you choose your political affectation by your position in the amphitheater in the lessons, when you're twenty: don't find a seat on the right side? You'll be a leftist for your political career.....

Social: a lot of problems, caused by two extreme Po V of the challenges for the country. Immigration that doesn't manage to be assimilated, and the answers are either "kick them out, they're rensponsible for every single problem you have in your daily life" or "oh, poor, poor innocent kiddies, we should be ashamed for our colonial past and not criticize anything, lest we would be racists". A inferiority complex (read: a need for national grandeur) that's been plaguing France since the WW 2, meaning that french people still think that their country should be a first-rate world power, but, as it's not, there is some unsaid resentment. And, of course, the whole inheritance of May 68 is still there, with a whole generation who's been taught that patriotism is dirty-bad-nationalism and that loving one's country is the same as being a reactionary old granpa, thus resulting in some sort of social schyzophrenia, as the need for greatness and pride (as in proud, not in arrogant) is one of the defining point of the French culture.

Science, tech: good overall level, even if there isn't a lot of patents (partly because a lot of the R&D has military uses, with bigs research centers like the CEA), but the funds are more and more lacking every year.

Environment: so, so much politicized. You have no idea of the place in media the "ecologists" have, and since it's a political thing, there isn't any real job done here, or they can even stop efforts that would get some job done but would prove them wrong (I'm thinking about Superphénix, an experimental nuclear reactor that would have greatly improved waste recycling and R&D for cleaner reactors, closed because of eco-lobbying).

But, most of all, the problem is an absolute lack of strategic thinking: no politician is thinking more than two or three years ahead, the industry, education and research aren't coordinated as they should be, so it's pretty hard to build anything really good.

I'm painting a bleak picture of my country, there, but there are still a lot of great things about it, of course. But, I'd say we're really at the crossroads. Either France becomes a second Italy, crumbling from the inside and becoming a second-rate power, even in Europe, or it can kick its own a** and get back on track.

Or, to put it simply, we need another De Gaulle to kick our collective a**es, and there isn't any in the horizon. And the sad realization of more and more people is that electing a far-right extremist party to power could maybe get things bad enough that one such man or woman could emerge from the chaos. So, in the following years, I think the presidential elections will be a choice: to continue with the actual system, or to gamble everything. OK, now, that's a bleak outlook...

So..., either 2.5/10 if we lose the gamble, 5.5 if we keep going in this way, or 9 if we win it.

edited 10th May '11 8:48:53 AM by RufusShinra

1) US Economics: Could be better admittedly, but there are a number of key factors seriously affecting how the future will be. Among them, how far will the government tax and intrude, how much will they restrict use of domestic resources of any kind (we have more oil than the Middle East but by and large we don't use it), and the debt issue.

2) US Politics: Polarization is high, but hey that's the price you pay for starting political feuds that don't die from the Bush days. (I'm looking at you Democrats bullhurt about the 2000 election, you idiots started this bullshit.) Over time this will settle out once an actual leader emerges in current politics. Overall rating: more stable than most of the world combined.

3) US Environmental: Actually we're doing a mixed bag here. As noted in economics, the government lately loves denying use of our resources no matter how smart or eco-friendly they may be. We have more oil than the entire Middle East from various sources and nobody in government is willing to let that be used no matter how safe it can be done. We're saddled to coal for our power grid because the eco-nut Luddites have pretty much shut down any reasonable attempt at getting widespread use and improvement of nuclear power. We have the capability to be fully energy independent and conscious of the environment at the same time yet we're not really doing either instead the people concerned about the environment are chasing unreliable science like anthropogenic global warming (not climate change as a whole), or stupid economic failure ideas like cap and trade, then you have nobody on the side of business and infrastructure in the face of this willing to try new ideas like next generation nuclear reactors.

4) US Population: The US-Mexican border basically needs the US Army deployed there to guard the country from the nigh civil war going on in Northern Mexico but apart from that and illegal immigration, all signs point to fine. A steady replacement and slightly higher birth rate coupled with immigration.

US Overall score: 5/10. Depending on the actions of the next few years could be much lower.

And now for Southeast Colorado:

1) Economy: Great if you are indispensable experienced skilled labor. (Especially Colorado Springs) Very poor right now for recent college graduates in their fields. Unionized labor in the south doesn't have a future, a trend that's been continuing since the 1960s in some places like the city of Pueblo.

2) Politics: The state is broke but not wallowing in debt yet. There's a huge political divide between the rural areas (especially in and near the mountains) and the Arkansas Valley towns and cities. Made worse by the fact there is significant Hispanic on others racism in the area that is getting inflamed both ways by the out of control illegal immigration situation. (Goes hand in hand with the rural-urban split, the small towns and rural areas do not like places like Pueblo being friendly towards illegal immigrants)

3) Population: There are still plenty of wide open spaces left in the state for quite a while.

4) Environmental: Water is the key problem down here. Always has been, always will be. Water down south is precious little in many areas and water storage programs usually don't have much of a negative effect on the local ecosystems. Big problem, not enough water storage projects especially in areas like Colorado Springs and some of the mountain towns. Invasive species like the tamarisk is also a major problem that is being actively combated.

SE Colorado score: 6/10. The state's broke owing to massive spending growth ever since TABOR was suspended in 2004 but that's the biggest hindrance to everything which is why the score is dragged down so much.

edited 10th May '11 11:09:58 AM by MajorTom

The only reason I didn't giggle at this is that approximately a third of my party really does appear to have gone batshit and I want them out. Sadly the reasonable Republicans are basically too boring for voters to remember.

That's another problem with our political situation I guess. The charismatic Republicans that get noticed tend to be loud nutters, and the charismatic Democrats that get noticed are The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The people we most want in office are most often the last ones we hear about if at all.

edited 10th May '11 1:00:53 PM by Pykrete

Funniest thing I've heard all day. Guess the Shutdown under old Newt was just a pat on the back! eh?

edited 10th May '11 1:03:24 PM by Alichains

I'll leave you to guess. Why? For teh lulz. 'Kay, now take caution, I'll be exaggerating. A bit.

1. Economy: like, the only place in Europe not hit by the recession. The explanation that we're so lame, we can't even get the global economic crisis right, kinda makes more sense than any other.

2. Social and Political Stability: quarter o' the nation is like US Birthers had a baby with 9/11 Truthers (only more militant than its parents). The ruling party is in power because they're so bland, the rest hates them less than the opposition (who commandeers the aforementioned quarter). The other parties are the lefties (trying to eke out a living pandering to the New Left, and playing the Miss Fanservice card), and the agrarian party (they're, like, survivalists of politics, there hasn't been a parliament without them for like a century). There are also the libertarians, who would get like 50% of votes if these were counted by Internet activism (they get less than 2%). So, pretty stable.

3. Population Growth and Density Issues: growth is low and there are fears the pension system will fall, and some measures are taken to counteract this. There're some hints that traditionalism is back in fashion amongst the newly-arriving generation, so there's a chance it won't be bad.

4. Environmental security: floods. Of course, every flood is the flood of century, and after it's over, any contingency plans called for during the disaster are immediately forgotten. The attitude towards environmentalism is improving, but where the generational change hasn't yet happened it's still a mix of new-school capitalist "greed is good, hell yeah!" and old-school communist "it's everyone's, so it's mine, so I can do what pleases me!"

5. Any other factors you deem important: the foreign policy: the opposition I spoke of is foaming at the mouth, while the ruling party is like, "oh, really? Whatever..." For some inexplicable reason the foreign powers are relatively friendly, perhaps because they are relieved we finally make little mess and play along.

Overall: I stand by the bars and watch the monkeys play.
I'd say chances are pretty good. 7,5/10.

edited 10th May '11 1:56:37 PM by lordGacek

I suspect you live in a Scandinavian country, just because I can't name any other countries with important agrarian parties.

edited 10th May '11 2:20:13 PM by Tsukubus

@New Geek Philoshper: I'm not trying to be offensive, but Australia is in enormous environmental trouble. It's a really fragile ecosystem. Read Jared Diamoand's Collapse if you want more info.

I'd guess France or Germany myself. It just feels like one of those two, or somewhere near to France and/or Germany.