Do you want to live in the city or country? Either way, why? Is there a specific place you’d like to live?
Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but I felt like sharing. I am in a stage of life I want to live wherever I find stability, it can be anywhere.
I’ve moved a lot searching for a better place and always found both happiness and misery in those four countries. There are problems everywhere and choosing those I actually care about makes my daily life a bit more meaningful.
Literally anywhere without property taxes so I don’t have to earn money to own small piece of land. Just to be able to grow my crops, breed my animals and don’t care about anything. Don’t have to be big land. Just amount that I can survive without owning any money. That would be nice.
Would love to live in the Portinscale Keswick area of the UK. I might never settle down in one place though as there is so much to explore.
A stable country with solid social safety nets where the people I love are not considered criminals simply for existing would be ideal.
Beyond those requirements, I could live in a cabin in the woods, a trailer in a park, a mansion in the countryside or an apartment in the city. It wouldn’t matter as much.
Sounds like good decision making there.
Really, talking realistically I’d move far north domestically, far from cities.
But if we’re talking ideally, I would definitely love Longyearbyen or the region in general. But that’s not even remotely feasible, if we are being entirely honest.
I’d never heard of that, but it looks very nice. A local merchant says that his brother lives in Norway and he loves to visit.
Cabin in the woods near a river or lake somewhere in Alaska. I love the cold and the snow. I want big dogs. I like chipping wood for heat. I enjoy being along the evergreens.
Insert joke along the lines of ‘I don’t.’
More seriously, I’ve thought about this a bit. The simple answer is already seen in other responses: rural enough to escape crowds, close enough to urbanity to get good internet. The more perspicacious answer is overly complex: someplace where the weather is mild enough not to kill you if you lose your keys, and likely to stay that way despite climate change, mountainous enough to have nice views and avoid flooding, flat enough to build, sparse enough for land to be affordable, populous enough to be able to get the things I want without making a long trek, wooded enough to get the benefit of trees, bare enough to allow access, not too many racists or zealots, not too rich or poor of neighbors, neighbors not close enough to disturb me, but not so far that I couldn’t run over for something if needed, somewhere politically stable, somewhere I can work without a million-mile commute, where the soil doesn’t suck, where there’s a pleasant amount of rain and sun…
It’s not a small question.
You’re mostly describing where I live! It’s really nice here. However, a few of your points are things that are lacking that I definitely wish I had. Oh well - I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been with my surroundings.
On some planet where is an intelligent life.
A city. Or a small town with city level amenities and reachability. Some place where I don’t need a car for regular and even some irregular errands.
I’m quite pleased with where I am right now, a provincial capital in NL. If I’d have to scale down, Houten looks quite promising. If I’d be forced to scale up and leave the country, the four places that pop to my mind that interest me are Freiburg (DE), Vienna (AT), Helsinki (FI) and Oslo (NO).
I lived in Suburbia as a child. Happiness is a thin veneer over the contempt the majority of neighbors feel for each other.
I lived in rural towns for much of my young adult life. Monopolized utilities and services, as well as the issue of small-town indoctrination, were reliably present.
I currently live in a metro. The rampant corruption and vehicle-oriented culture are noxious.
I guess I want to live in outer space. It’s pretty quiet up there and I’d imagine it doesn’t really smell all that bad.
In space, everyone knows you farted.
I currently live in a metro. The rampant corruption and vehicle-oriented culture are noxious.
Not all metros are that shitty. IDK about corruption, but at least in Europe there are cities with less car-oriented culture.
I want to live like on the edge of a city. Like right out side the tall buildings, small single-family homes, in a very diverse and welcoming society without bigotry.
I’m Chinese-American, PRC is too authoritarian, USA is declining into fascism, Europe doesn’t seem to be too immigrant friendly. I don’t fucking know, this world is bullshit. I want to live in an alt-universe where republican party collapsed and we have a Progressive Party of America, and the Democratic Party, with every declining membership and support. President Sanders… etc, etc…
I want to live in an area that has a great music scene. It has to be clean and pleasant with plenty of community engagement and friendly people. I have to be able to afford a home, food, healthcare, and some things that I and the family just want. I don’t want to be scared for myself or my transgender kids, or my wife. I don’t want to be scared of the government or the people who wanted this version of it.
Basically, I want to live in United States that was promised to me when I was a kid. No matter where it is.
EDIT: Or Cicely, AK.
Not in one single place.
I am lucky right now that my life is spread over 2 continents, with vastly different cultures and climates, and I love it
I also love the contrast, because not any single place is perfect, and switching every few months is just the best
There’s no single one-size-fits-all solution to your question. But maybe there are several answers.
The Shire
Ireland sounds nice
