The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index

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ABC, UK said on the 11^th November 2009:

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123, UK responded on the 8^th January 2010:

I live in the UK. I know alot about it. It isn't perfect. Our problem is we listen too much to newspapers, the media and people like abc. To them I say if you dont like it just leave and do everyone a favour! I wish people could open their eyes, see what they have and look on the bright side, and be content, instead of spreading their abhorrant complaints and opinions on the internet. I like the UK, I think overall we have alot to be thankful for, despite the problems we have. I just wish hateful people like this could see it. Oh and about abc's comments about Finland, you are out of order! I have never been to finland or met a finnish person, but calling them all arrogant! who do you think you are? You cant call a whole country arrogant. The people of the UK, Finland and the entire world are all one. We are, nearly all of us, good, respectable people, but there are always a few that let the rest of us down. You ABC are that few.

ABC, UK responded on the 23^rd January 2010:

Hello 123 :

First of all, I will tell you that indeed I am planning to leave the UK as soon as I can.

With that said I will tell you this : With respect, you responded to my comment with nonsense.
How about actually answering my questions ? None of the statements I made have anything to do with media misinformation or rumours.

Or are you going to tell me that it is a media (or even my own) invention that the UK (as I said in my original comment) has an "unelected head of state, unelected prime minister, unelected house of lords and a first past the post voting system". Considering these facts, are you seriously agreeing with the Legatum that the UK's high score in the Democratic institutions category is appropriate ?

What about the FACT (rather than fairytale) that the UK's gross debt is FIVE times larger than its gross earnings; and I'm talking about all debt, not just goverment debt, as one cannot use GDP to compare public debt, if you use gross earnings you must also use gross debt for comparison.

Is it a media fantasy that the UK is involved in wars where it has no business being in, and this involment actually foments terrorism instead of decreasing it (7/7 incident comes to mind) ? Is it a fancy of my imagination that there are over one million incidents of violence from strangers (and only strangers, and these are the ones the police know about) per year in the UK ? How can such a country be considered so highly by the Legatum in the Safety and security category ?

Am I dreaming up the hundreds of thousands if not millions of medical/hospital incidents in the UK per year caused/related to excessive alcohol consumption ? Are all the thousands of hospital originated infections plaguing the NHS illusions ? Are the hundreds of thousands of yearly medical errors a myth?
All these are FACTS. So based on these facts (and many more poor performance health related facts) do you still agree with the Legatum on its high score for the UK on the Health category ?

And regarding many of the other categories and subcateogories, the Legatum people must have been looking at the UK of a parallel universe.

For example, where the Legatum mention how excellent the regulators are in the UK for the Governance category, the only conclusion I can think of is that they have not realised that the abysmal financial regulation of the UK contributed greatly to the current dismal state of the UK economy.
What about other regulators such as Ofgen, who have no legal powers whatsoever to prevent the energy duppliers from ripping us off. What is the point of such regulators ?
And the less said about MPs expenses the better !

With education, ha, ha ! What does the Legatum look at for this category ? Enrollment. Oh yes, lots of enrollment in the UK, but what comes out of the other side ?
We have 8 million illiterates in the UK. Half of students finish secondary education with insufficient grades. Many tens of thousands of students play truant every day.
Based on these facts, the Legatum's ranking for the UK in this category is too high.

With the category of Freedom, the Legatum's ranking of the UK is farcical. We are talking about the country with the largest amount of CCTV cameras in the world. Privacy International and Cryptohippie rank the UK alongside countries such as China and South Korea when it comes to surveillance and privacy protection of the population. Add to that the disgusting levels of 'political correction', thought crimes and conspiring to torture people, and the high ranking given to the UK for the Freedom category is a complete and utter joke.

The Innovation category for the UK conveniently looks at how many businesses opened in the UK. What about the ones that closed ? The fact is that in 2007 (before the recession) around 27,000 more businesses closed than opened. That is a net loss of businesses. Obviously the ability to open a business so quickly and easily (for which the Legatum praise the UK) does not work very well. Perhaps those 'barriers' the Legatum seem to disapprove of actually serve the purpose, in other countries that may have them, of ensuring that not any idiot without any business sense opens up only to fail miserably later. They also mention how good the UK is with technology. Can you think of any major British owned and British based technology company that has significant impact worlwide ? Look around your home and see how many of your gadgets and gizmos have British brands on them. Answer : None or a couple at most. How many British owned major car manufacturers are there ? Answer : None.

The Social category's ranking by Legatum for the UK is comical. OK it does gain points because the UK is so charitable (for the lot of good that does, yeah right !).
But charity aside, socially, the UK is not as good as the Legatum think. They mention family and friends. The UK is one of the most anti-family countries in the civilised world. Even the taxes are biased against families.
Any Latin/Mediterranean country will have far, far more family values than the UK.
In any case, this category is particularly subjective.

Forget the categories for a minute. The fact that Legatum have ranked overall the UK higher than countries such as France or Germany is utterly absurd. No, not absurd, insane !

Now, I am not suggesting that the UK should be ranked 104th (last) !
But ranked 12th ? It is sheer madness. A more realistic and appropriate ranking would be somewhere in the mid 30s, say 33rd or 34th.

Finally, with regards to Finland. I guess you misunderstood my statement. I am not calling ALL Finnish persons arrogant, I merely called arrogant those Finnish individuals who have posted here boasting about their country. Particuarly so because not even if hell ends up frozen like Finland, can Finland be number one on this ranking. Or any Scandinavian country for that matter. I have nothing against them but I happen to know reasonably well how the societies in those countries operate underneath that mask of apparent prosperity. But that is a post for another time.

Oh, and yes, I agree with you. "Scientifically" we are all one and the same.
"Socially" and "culturally" we are not. And it is those social and cultural differences that make some countries more prosperous (or "better" if you prefer) than others.

Now I say good night.
Thank you for reading.

ABC, UK responded on the 25^th January 2010:

Erm ... ? Why has my comment been removed, Mr Moderator ? There is no bigotry or profanity on it whatsoever. Or is the Legatum worried that the truth about some of its rankings will be discovered ?

Anonymous, Serbia said on the 22^nd January 2010:

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Hong Kong isn't a country. Whay is it included in this survey?

ABC, UK responded on the 24^th January 2010:

Pardon me, when I mention South Korea in my text above, I meant to say NORTH Korea.

Jayan Nair, Dubai, UAE said on the 16^th January 2010:

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Im pleasantly surprised that some 'ordinary' countries are ahead of some oil rich ones. Whenever I visit India on vacation, I find that people whom I know have money for their needs and are happy even otherwise. A clean,well made cup of tasty tea costs less than one tenth of a dollar in a regular restaurant. The creamy froth with a lipton teabag that i get in dubai costs double. Reminds me of two good quotes "you are rich not by the money that you made, but by the moments of life that you touched" & "man's unhappiness started the moment he left home"

wiya, jakarta said on the 13^th January 2010:

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i read the explanation about indonesia's safety and security condition.. and i found this "Indonesia also suffered some casualties due to civil war in 2008".. what civil war?.. the last war happened in indonesia is about 50 years ago.. it's pathetic your index..

wiya, jakarta said on the 13^th January 2010:

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indonesia has personal freedom less than saudi arabia.. come on.. you can change your religion even your sex status in indonesia.. if you doing that in saudi arabia.. you'll die..

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Economic Fundamentals	40th
Entrepreneurship & Innovation	45th
Democratic Institutions	30th
Education	37th
Health	43rd
Safety and Security	46th
Governance	45th
Personal Freedom	81st
Social Capital	101st



1	Finland	10	9	9	3	7	2	2	7	6
2	Switzerland	2	13	1	22	3	6	3	11	2
3	Sweden	16	3	7	4	15	7	5	5	3
4	Denmark	15	6	12	2	12	4	1	2	13
5	Norway	18	17	8	1	10	1	7	1	10
6	Australia	7	15	5	6	21	14	10	4	4
7	Canada	6	4	6	16	22	9	9	3	9
8	Netherlands	3	5	19	14	8	15	8	10	8
9	United States	14	1	2	7	27	19	16	8	7
10	New Zealand	27	18	4	10	19	13	11	6	1
11	Ireland	5	12	13	18	2	5	12	25	12
12	United Kingdom	13	2	11	21	23	22	13	19	11
13	Belgium	4	20	3	11	5	16	15	9	26
14	Germany	23	8	21	19	6	21	17	17	19
15	Austria	12	19	10	13	1	10	14	36	23
16	Japan	8	7	20	20	9	12	20	22	40
17	France	17	14	14	15	14	23	18	15	48
18	Hong Kong	1	10	60	39	18	11	6	67	33
19	Spain	11	25	15	12	17	28	21	13	71
20	Slovenia	31	36	16	8	24	8	24	33	44
21	Italy	25	26	23	17	11	31	35	40	37
22	Portugal	28	31	22	29	20	17	25	26	64
23	Singapore	9	11	86	26	4	3	4	64	76
24	Taiwan	19	21	29	9	26	20	43	30	73
25	Czech Republic	20	27	25	31	16	29	28	23	74
26	South Korea	21	16	32	30	31	36	27	70	31
27=	Israel	22	23	17	25	25	74	26	41	78
27=	Hungary	26	22	26	23	30	30	29	48	92
29	Poland	33	35	24	27	32	25	32	45	68
30	Greece	42	43	40	5	13	32	30	65	51
31	Estonia	30	24	34	35	35	33	19	43	94
32	Costa Rica	55	33	28	61	37	44	38	12	47
33	Uruguay	67	53	35	43	28	26	31	14	60
34	Slovakia	35	30	18	36	36	34	33	69	69
35	Croatia	41	34	41	40	34	39	42	28	46
36	Chile	36	47	27	49	48	27	22	31	85
37	Latvia	32	32	31	24	38	38	34	76	99
38	Argentina	53	48	45	38	39	45	69	27	56
39	Malaysia	24	28	69	52	40	48	37	83	52
40	Trinidad and Tobago	48	58	43	73	49	54	52	18	34
41	Brazil	54	37	38	58	64	79	53	16	62
42	Panama	46	73	39	48	57	41	50	54	50
43	Mexico	34	29	61	60	51	72	51	73	45
44	Thailand	37	39	81	54	66	58	40	74	22
45	India	43	55	36	86	88	87	41	47	5
46	Bulgaria	40	45	30	37	43	46	45	81	101
47	United Arab Emirates	38	44	98	47	29	18	39	72	77
48	Romania	52	40	33	41	47	40	64	78	102
49	Jamaica	71	51	56	71	55	57	73	24	61
50	Mongolia	57	70	44	53	76	35	86	59	42
51	South Africa	58	46	47	69	82	96	47	50	30
52=	Belize	74	49	50	79	61	61	55	58	58
52=	Kuwait	62	71	83	33	33	24	44	87	79
54	Dominican Republic	85	90	59	76	77	77	62	21	20
55	Philippines	63	41	67	70	75	78	66	20	81
56	Botswana	56	92	37	80	95	68	23	32	29
57	Paraguay	87	67	65	74	65	50	76	29	53
58	Sri Lanka	81	82	71	77	72	97	59	39	17
59	Macedonia	86	68	42	57	41	55	63	71	88
60	El Salvador	73	74	68	83	69	71	58	35	59
61=	Indonesia	68	63	58	75	78	63	61	100	14
61=	Ukraine	60	59	55	32	67	69	92	68	89
63	Namibia	69	64	53	85	83	86	46	46	27
64	Peru	49	61	51	51	81	73	68	62	104
65	Colombia	61	57	70	62	63	104	49	44	75
66	Honduras	76	88	63	78	80	62	71	63	55
67	Guatemala	84	75	74	87	71	82	70	42	49
68	Tunisia	66	54	94	50	54	37	36	86	96
69=	Russia	39	42	85	28	46	99	85	88	84
69=	Turkey	50	56	49	68	56	83	48	94	103
71	Ecuador	78	72	77	65	58	89	87	61	65
72	Nicaragua	96	91	46	82	84	66	72	38	57
73	Bolivia	90	78	54	63	85	76	84	53	66
74	Venezuela	83	85	72	66	60	93	101	57	54
75	China	29	38	100	64	53	65	93	91	70
76	Kazakhstan	59	62	96	42	45	49	97	75	87
77	Vietnam	47	60	97	81	68	42	75	80	63
78	Moldova	82	52	57	45	79	75	89	85	93
79	Ghana	94	103	48	93	93	53	54	34	24
80	Jordan	64	77	84	46	59	47	57	103	83
81	Saudi Arabia	44	81	101	56	42	56	67	98	43
82	Mali	92	99	52	102	101	43	80	37	15
83	Morocco	51	50	82	84	73	59	65	90	91
84	Senegal	100	89	62	99	96	51	56	52	28
85	Belarus	45	76	102	34	44	52	98	89	98
86	Lebanon	75	66	80	44	52	90	79	99	90
87	Bangladesh	80	86	75	89	90	80	60	56	72
88	Egypt	72	65	90	55	50	64	91	95	100
89	Zambia	102	101	64	98	97	85	77	60	21
90	Nepal	91	93	89	91	86	91	94	77	18
91	Mozambique	95	98	73	104	100	60	78	49	38
92	Uzbekistan	89	87	104	72	62	67	96	82	80
93	Cambodia	65	102	88	96	98	70	82	51	67
94	Iran	79	69	93	59	70	88	102	101	82
95	Kenya	101	83	66	95	91	100	88	84	25
96	Algeria	77	95	87	67	74	95	83	97	95
97	Tanzania	97	100	76	100	102	84	74	66	41
98	Nigeria	99	94	78	94	92	98	99	92	16
99	Pakistan	70	79	79	101	87	101	81	104	36
100	Cameroon	88	96	95	92	99	94	103	79	35
101=	Central African Rep.	98	104	92	103	104	92	100	55	39
101=	Yemen	103	97	91	88	94	81	90	93	86
103	Sudan	93	80	103	97	89	103	95	96	32
104	Zimbabwe	104	84	99	90	103	102	104	102	97

Where to begin?

Sub-index Weightings

Key findings

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Bulgaria

The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index Table Rankings

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