Ask Lemmy

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.

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 here in the US in Florida, but in the timeline where Al Gore actually got all the votes counted and won. We are in "uptown" of a mid size city and it's awesome, I don't like living in the country but having a yard and garden is nice, and I don't need to drive much as we are close to many amenities.

City would be my second choice, I do enjoy living in a city, walking to bar or grocery, everything right there and so much to do.

Ireland sounds nice

The Shire

Converted croft on a remote Scottish island with horizon all round, facing west so I can watch the sun go down.

A nice little cabin in the woods and by a lake.

Far enough from the nearest town that I don’t have neighbors, but close enough that I can reasonably make a grocery run each week.

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.

I want to either live in the city. Walking to everything, choices for stuff to do, people...

Or

Be in a cabin near a small in the middle of nowhere. With Internet though :p

Toronto right downtown. I like the city, I like transit, I like having four seasons, I like having underground walkways, I like doggies on transit.

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.

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.

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.

I'm thinking of moving to Mongolia one day. Vast open spaces and a bitter cold winter. It's nice to be forgotten by the world.

I want to live on a sailboat and be nomadic.

Always the city. I would like to remove Buffalo from the US and transplant just over the border to Canada and move there. It's such a cool city.

Agent 47's cabin. For those that don't know, he's the main character from the Hitman games - and yes, his crib is epic.

I only do well in cities. I need diversity, culture, community, and transit. You don't get that in the middle of nowhere.

I'd like to live in the woods in the PNW. It's pretty, I like the weather and there aren't too many bugs (compared to other parts of the country).

I'm basically there. I wish my property were a bit bigger with some woods and a freshwater stream coming out of the mountains, but I'm like 95% happy. Here is rural northern Japan. Having a grocery store closer would be neat. Maybe if the town grows again (it's at around 50% of its pre-tsunami population) the one nearby will reopen.

Countryside, as far away as possible while still having a reliable internet connection

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.

Ireland or Finland. Senegal or Mexico when the cold gets unbearable

Canary Islands (Spain) because it is one of the best climate in the world. Always mid, average temperatures are around 20 degrees so winters are nice and summers not too hot. + you can go to the beach every day and it is Europe so you’ve got EU quality of life.

But I wont do it. Canarians are dying because of tourism, AirBnB and nomad workers. They can’t pay rents, there’s water shortages and too many old retired fucks from UK or Germany unable to speak Spanish and owning 25 apartments to short term rent. Fuck them, I wont be part of the problem.

So next solution is staying home, which happens to be one of the best country in the world for quality of life (Switzerland), so that’s not too bad. Food is not the best but France and Italy are less than 2h away by train.

I just need Tokyo to be a 2h train ride as well (for food yeah, again) and that would be perfect.

Somewhere in the countryside with lots of nature around but not too far away from civilization. Ideally in a small country mostly unaffected by geopolitics and with a temperate climate.

I want to live in the woods in New Hampshire again some day. It's a beautiful place and also a place where the state and local governments don't make me grind my teeth in frustration all the time*. I would have a house, a lot of land, and no neighbors except for pine trees.

I had most of that already and I left, because I was very lonely - I think I talked to another person face to face about once every few weeks. I thought I would be OK with that because I was used to being alone, but having no family, no friends, and a 100% remote job was too much for me. Apparently even I start going crazy if I am that isolated. Now I live somewhere I really don't like (New York City) but I'm close to my family.

*New Hampshire is a rather libertarian state. Taxes are low but the town where I lived (population 15,000) didn't provide water, sewers, or garbage collection. Many things are legal that aren't legal in most other places. For example, you can drive without insurance, set off fireworks, and do almost anything with a gun except shoot another person. The state motto is "Live free or die," and I would tell my guests that as long as they did one or the other, the state's duty to them would be satisfied.

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.

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.

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.