Golden Toilet vs. Cozy Shack: The Modest Charm of Luxury and the Pleasures of Simplicity

Standard of living is like a router with a mood: technically it works, but just a couple of steps from the center the signal weakens to a philosophical level. Some countries seem to have premium access to reality—even the cats here eat better than a scholarship student. Others—well, let’s just say even the goats are considering emigration as a life strategy.

Today we’ll decide where existence resembles Instagram with auto-tune, and where it’s more like TikTok in “offline” mode.

Penthouse of the Planet: TOP Standard of Living

1. Norway — The Kingdom of Costly Bliss

Here, even melancholy costs more than the average European joy. Everything is transparent: oil goes into savings, taxes go sky-high, pensions are like a retired general’s vacation. Life is so measured that if the heating is suddenly turned off, the locals conclude: “Summer must have arrived.”

2. Switzerland — The Apex of Banks and Zen Cheesemaking

Here, perfection is taken to the absurd: the grass grows at the right angle so taxes flow faster. The plumber shows up in a business suit, chocolate is not food but a philosophical category. Standard of living? They’re already having picnics on it here.

3. Iceland — Volcanoes, Myths, and Calm

Icelanders live where the weather changes more often than fresh memes. But apparently, there’s something special in their geysers: the GDP is high, souls are occupied, and showers are always at hand. No army—the fjords are content.

4. Canada — Cold, but with a Human Face

Canadians are Americans who have completed a crash course in “Humanism for Dummies.” Healthcare is free, nature is conditionally paid (unless you take a helicopter), standard of living comes with an iceberg panorama. Even the bears say hello—though sometimes a little too close.

Basement of Civilization: A Vacation for Extremists

1. South Sudan — Young and Green, Anxiously Gray

The country is as young as a TikTok blogger just starting out, but with as many problems as mortgage holders at the finish line. Conflicts, poverty, standard of living—lower than the Wi-Fi baseboard. Water is an adventure, electricity a rare festive event.

2. Venezuela — Oil Abounds, Bread Imaginary

When oil is underfoot and inflation overhead, the speed of printing money has long outpaced the bakery industry. Here, schoolchildren are learning not math, but the art of calculator tuning.

3. Afghanistan — Stability as a Meme

Life resembles a spinner: it spins, it hums, but not much use. Regimes change with enviable regularity, infrastructure exists only in legends. The people are hardened, but the standard of living is at the “please turn off the 20th century” stage.

Middle Class of the Globe: Between a Dream and a Communal Apartment

Poland, Czechia, Lithuania — Former, but Promising

Memories of sausage lines are still fresh, but now there are startups delivering sausage by drone. The European dream at entry level, but growing confidently. People work, the state sometimes remembers, and life is already beyond Soviet jokes.

Russia — Oil Abounds, Predictability Does Not

From Moscow to Chukotka you can replay the whole spectrum of life without getting off the couch. Pensioners are survival masters without heating, the youth are without illusions but with irony. Standard of living is a lottery: sometimes a buffet, sometimes a ration-card diet.

Conclusion: Paradise Begins Where Neither Cat nor Owner Suffers

Standard of living isn’t just a matter of the wallet. It’s also healthcare, the ability not to tremble before the future, and the art of smiling even when it’s cloudy. Somewhere, this takes three salaries and two degrees, somewhere else—just a night without gunfire.

So yes, Norway is wonderful. But happiness is a willful creature: it more often chooses a thatched roof over a penthouse with a world GDP view.