depends. Thailand is hot and humid. If you grew up in a cold, rainy environment, it sounds like paradise. However for those people who grew up in SE-Asia where every single day is summer and where you couldn't take ten steps without being drenched in sweat, a temperate oceanic climate like London is heaven.
Sorry, I didn't realize I was talking to a mentally deficient person. Are you one of those guys who wears the flag on his underwear? Sounds like it It's 2012, so it's the era of "Chinese exceptionalism" and before it was the era of "European exceptionalism"! Anyway, ever heard of Jim Rogers? And then there's the Australian billionaire Nathan Tinkler, rings a bell? Oddly enough, the places you recommended are some of the worst places for living. It's not the 90s anymore, get with the times.
two words: Monte Carlo. perfect climate, well maybe not hot enough during summer. not an option below 5...10 eur million. nobody mentioned Gibraltar? They pay in pounds there!
China is generally a shithole, tell me one jolly thing about China please. You can't even have a Twitter over there. Modern chinese cities are nice, if you like that. There was never such a thing as European exceptionalism - or at least let me know of a time when there was, because in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s and today Europe has been hell all year long. Europe is a shithole as usual. WWII wiped out most of it, and now you are generally socialists with nothing to show. Where are your Apples? Googles? Mark Zuckerbergs? All you do is build public things nobody cares about and envy US products like Airbus. If you tell a frenchie to go startup a company, they will shittee themselves because they don't want to give up their â¬20 k per year salary. Like I said, move to the USA, Brittan or stick around the EU, Austrailia, Russia or China. Don't move to bumfuck egypt or Afghanistan like you are suggesting (Thailand - ). US has the largest GDP by a gaping margin, and the US accounts for 25% of the world's GDP. 25% - nobody else comes near that measure. Certainly not South America or the EU.
Monaco is just a place for old sunburned rich farts to show off their gold-digging almost-fashion-model-looking wives. Gibraltar is just a rock with equally ridiculous real estate prices. Personally I prefer places with a real economy. Those two don't have it. We are both equally off-topic though, I'm not talking about retiring and you're not talking about places for average people for whom the article was probably intended.
The topic is on best place to retire. Not best place to start a business. Anyone who thinks of retiring in the US without their medical care planned for is crazy. If anything serious happens they'll be dead in the emergency waiting room.
Are you for real? 200 years ago Europe was the place where it was happening, most of US just consisted of cowboys cooking beans on a bonfire in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I was mocking the "exceptionalism" theory, which is a sad joke. Your America-centric view on history just tells me about the state of education in the US. For the record, Airbus has plenty of orders. I guess that's why half of the world orders planes from them, because they're unneeded, right... Airbus is a public company, no more associated with the gov't than Boeing. EU GDP is larger than the US GDP. There, I've done my part for the "educate one moron per day" project
Europe was a hellhole full of dictators prior to the USA with people taking dumps on their roof. It has never been a really great place to live, although many parts are excellent today. The US has always been free and an excellent place to live, despite the rough periods they have had. Today Europe is in economic disorder with governments spending money building nuclear power plants and trains like girls shopping - and almost no one in Europe has the traits to start any great businesses (unlike the USA). It is a socialistic land that is a little better than the Soviet Union in prosperity (although allot better in freedom). Your denial of the US shows your inferiority complex, and strength of biasness. By the way, I'm from Switzerland. So I guess this goes to show that you're not really a common opinion here. Airbus is in a desperate financial situation. Boeing has lots of capital. Bottom line: best country to live in is the best country. South America: not. USA, Brittan or EU, Australia, Russia or China. I recommend to anyone to take this advice, since this is the topic of the thread. Ps don't blink at me, I'm not your fat pale girlfriend.