Of the many observations I could make, I will only make two;
1. The UAE, the most capitalist (and least radical) Arab country is pretty darn happy.
2. What the hell are the Finlanders so happy about?
(though I can see a joke "Why is Finland so happy? "Because they're not Norway")
Finland is known for a very high alcohol consume. They drink until everything looks fine ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if Luxembourg is as happy as Finland, since they are by far the richest nation in the world. It's a shame that they are such a small country...
Funny thing is that most of those happy countris also carry hight suicide rate. Either you are happy or you die. lol.
ReplyDeleteI really don't like happiness "research" very much. It's just way too subjective, and probably just tells us more about what people think they're supposed to say than how they really feel. Of course, there's no way to test that either.
ReplyDeleteDtrum - I thought Bermuda was giving Lux a run for their money?
ReplyDeleteAnon - You are correct! Why I dind't see this before. All the unhappy people commit suicide, thereby driving up the average happiness. "Suicide is good for a country's happiness overall"
Ryan - I just like throwing data that counter socialism. Because to them "it's only money." That is until you try to take it from them.
Finland's easy. I immigrated from there to the US in 1992 and my dad never stops talking about how great the place is. The country is pretty socialist, but the government is actually pretty efficient about it. A country with just one major culture and only a few million people means just less bureaucracy than your usual democratic-socialist European state. It'd be more fair to compare Finland to a city in the US than anything else.
ReplyDeleteCaptain,
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Bermuda is even a little bit richer than Luxembourg. However, with a population of only 65'000 (Luxembourg: 450'000), I do not seriously consider it as a "nation". Furthermore, their wealth probably consists only of foreign owned money, which has been transferred for the reason of lower taxes.
I know, Luxembourg has done the same thing, but because of the greater population this has probably produced only a part of all their wealth, the rest coming from true, hard work.
Finland has a relatively high ratio of Scandinavian women to non-Scandinavian women, especially when compared to, say, Zaire or Peru.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe they're only happy because it's summer. Wait until the eleven months of soul-crushing darkness come along, and then you'll see just why the suicide rate is so high.
Very interesting, where did you get this? tnx
ReplyDeleteNot only do they get to sleep with their own women, but they get to sleep with the married Swedish ones as well!
ReplyDeleteThe Finns are happy about their domination of the Metal scene.
ReplyDeleteFinland is at once considered the smartest country in the world (based on PISA results, neck and neck with South Korea who is significantly less happy) and the happiest country in the world. I wonder what accounts for this duality. Is it genetics? I think it might just be.
ReplyDelete