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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ThirdEye who wrote (73032)	7/13/2006 1:26:16 AM
From: elpolvo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361075

3rd- I would bet you hard cash that the rankings of Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are skewed by the growing numbers of US ex-pats invading all those countries with lots of money. the rankings aren't really about money... and the main reason those central american countries score so high is because of their low impact on the earth's environment and natural resources. the three components of the rankings are... 1) life satisfaction 2) life expectancy (in years) and... 3) environmental impact here's a link to the study/proposal .pdf file document. it explains the ranking criteria: neweconomics.org there ARE a lot of US ex-pats invading central america, myself included (in winter) BUT taking lots of money down there actually lowers the ranking because it puts the poor at a greater financial disadvantage by inflating land costs and other prices. that wealth gap figures as a "negative" in the life satisfaction component in the happy planet index equation. the "new economics foundation" has some excellent ideas and focus. it's very similar (in quality of life focus) to the bill and melinda gates foundation (but it doesn't have the billions behind it). i appreciate and support what they're doing. maybe the gates foundation will avail themselves of some of their research, studies, brainpower and suggestions. -ep