Quality of City Life - A tale of my two cities

Bias and subjectivity are always strange beasts and can emerge even when we've convinced ourselves we can be objective.

My favourite story that demonstrates this so well is courtesy of a friend. When she was little she had a fleet of toy cars that she would race. For some indiscernible reason she favoured one car in particular so when she raced it she would give it just a little more push than the others to increase the likelihood that it would win. She convinced herself it was a fair race and would have hated to be seen as giving the favoured car an unfair advantage.

The Mercer Quality of Living Survey has been released as has their Cost of Living Survey. Top of each list was Zurich for quality of life and Moscow as most expensive. I've been to both cities and would probably say I prefer Moscow over Zurich but that is not where my true subjective bias lies.

My subjectivity lies in my deep-seated bias towards my home town of Melbourne over my adopted home of Toronto. Here is how they were represented in the lists.

Quality of Living:
Toronto = #15
Melbourne = #17

NB: I can't believe Sydney was ahead of both my cities at #9, the outrage!

If I was objective I'd be pleased that the city I actually live in is considered to have a better quality of life than my home town. Not so, I pouted and said 'Humph!' aloud when I saw Toronto coming before Melbourne, then muttered to myself that they probably didn't take into account having to calculate and add tips and tax every time you buy something. Not a subjective reaction, I am aware of that.


Cost of Living
Toronto = #19
Melbourne = not on the list

Bwahhahahhaahhahahha.. Sydney was #24 .. bwahahahahhhaha

My happiness that Melbourne didn't even make it on to the list of most expensive cities me happy. Again, it's irrational and fiscally ridiculous that I'm pleased that I live in a city that is significantly more expensive than my home town.


The moral of this story is simple. I do like living in my adopted home of Toronto; it's where I've chosen to actually live; but my heart's allegiance will always be to Melbourne. Melbourne will always be the metaphoric car that I push a little harder so it will win. However Sydney will always be the metaphoric car that's wheels I have sabotaged so there is no way it can beat my metaphoric Toronto-mobile.