Friday, April 1, 2011

Country Comparison: France, Switzerland, or Vietnam?

Author's Note: Recently we had a seminar where we compared different countries to the United States.  We were assigned to choose one of those countries to live in with reason to back up our answer.  I compared France, Switzerland, and Vietnam to the United States.  I really want to show my voice and opinion in this essay.  Please leave feedback and comments at the bottom.   

From north to south and east to west lay thousands countries all around the world.  I choose three countries out of so many: France, Switzerland, and Vietnam to compare to our home, the United States of America.  All countries had pros and cons in comparison to the United States.  In the end,  all I would need to do is answer one simple question, Where would I rather live France, Switzerland, or Vietnam? 


France is a country not much smaller than the Midwest region located within western Europe.   With a population of over 60,000,000 people there is a 4.3% higher chance to be left unemployed and if they had a job they would make 29.31% less money.  In comparison to the United States they have more pros than cons.  For example, the convenience to pay less for health care since they don't earn as much money.  They also get 17.92% more free time, in addition their life expectancy is 2.85 years longer.  People save earth and stay healthy by nearly cutting the use of electricity and consumption of oils by 50% compared to the U.S.

Switzerland, a country also within Europe, with only one con and various pros when compared to the United States.  Unlike France they have a 52.6% higher chance of being employed, but they will get paid 10.13% less money.  For health care, the people don't need to spend as much for coverage too.  In Switzerland, they have a 32.9% less chance of dying in infancy, one years old or younger.  As they get older, they are expected to live 2.73 years longer than average Americans do.  Switzerland's use of electricity and consumption of oils are also about 35% less than the United States.

Vietnam is the thirteenth most populous country with almost 90,000,000 residents.  They have a birth rate of 25.02% more children for every 1,000 people.  Unfortunately, babies one and under have 3.5 times higher chance of dying in infancy.  Plus a grown person's expectancy for life is about 6.3 years sooner than an American's life expectancy.  On the other hand, there would be about a 70% higher chance to be employed and they don't need to pay as much for health care.  Then again, they make almost 95% less money than the average United States employee. 

Though learning about Vietnam was quite interesting, I wouldn't want to live there out of the three countries.  The change from the United States to Vietnam would be very drastic making it harder to adapt.  To choose either France or Switzerland had me stumbling upon all these statistics for what would make a better life and environment.  In conclusion, I decided that I would rather live in France more than Switzerland and Vietnam since the statistics had more positive percentages, and the two cons weren't so big to greatly impact my life.  Personally, I would rather live in France, but where would you rather live: France, Switzerland, or Vietnam?

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed the way you put a lot of thought and consideration into this piece. the starting off point provided by the seminar was taken by you as an opportunity to actually learn something of interest. I like the countries you chose, and how they have some real connections, whether you knew that ahead of time or not. Your voice was appropriate to the purpose, and I could follow, as the reader, your thinking process while you entertained the question. After reading your piece, I would choose to live in Switzerland! Excellent job.

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  2. I'd pick France, just because they have good food and thought I went there when I was like two, I don't remember anything. You said in your Author's Note that you wanted to show your opinion in your voice and I think you achieved that. Nice Job!

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