World's happiest countries

[Canuckistani]

http://ca.finance.ya...-233204795.html

1. Norway

2. Denmark

3. Sweden

4. Australia

5. New Zealand

6. Canada

7. Finland

8. The Netherlands

9. Switzerland

10. Ireland

Being an electoral democracy is virtually a given – of the top 20 most prosperous countries, only Singapore and Hong Kong aren't democracies. Being small also seems to help. Big countries with heterogeneous populations are more unwieldy; disparate groups make it harder for a society to build social cohesion and trust.

They are all borderline socialist states, with generous welfare benefits and lots of redistribution of wealth. Yet they don't let that socialism cross the line into autocracy. Civil liberties are abundant (consider decriminalized drugs and prostitution in the Netherlands). There are few restrictions on the flow of capital or of labor.

I guess we're doing pretty well, especially being a big country with a heterogeneous population. We could also do better of course, if we looked more to the top countries on that list for suggestions on how to organize ourselves.

What’s Norway got that the rest of the world doesn’t? For one thing, a stunning per capita GDP of $57,000 a year. Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living: Ninety-five percent say they are satisfied with the freedom to choose the direction of their lives; an unparalleled 74% say other people can be trusted. It sure doesn’t hurt that the massive Norwegian welfare state is bankrolled by high taxes and big reserves of offshore oil and gas.

What's not mentioned is the lack of poverty in the top countries. I'm not sure we're doing all that well there, but then Ireland is on the list, and they must have quite a bit of poverty.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Canuckistani

[-TSS-]

One thing in common with all the top10 countries is that they are all small countries. OK, Canada isn't small even populationwise, it's a middle-sized country, but the others are.

[Canuckistani]

One thing in common with all the top10 countries is that they are all small countries. OK, Canada isn't small even populationwise, it's a middle-sized country, but the others are.

As the article says:

Big countries with heterogeneous populations are more unwieldy; disparate groups make it harder for a society to build social cohesion and trust.

So would we be happier if we cut way back on immigration? But as it also says, borderline socialism with civil liberties and few restrictions on capital and labor seem to be the way to go. We should quit looking south for inspiration and look east instead.

[Guest American Woman]

One thing in common with all the top10 countries is that they are all small countries. OK, Canada isn't small even populationwise, it's a middle-sized country, but the others are.

They're all pretty small - Canada's population is small compared to the most populous. China and India by far have the largest percentage of the world's population - at 19.08% and 17.14% respectively - and the U.S. is next with 4.46% of the world's population. In comparison, Canada has only .5% of the world's population. Of course smaller populations generally compare more favorably with larger - we see it within our own countries, regarding smaller cities compared to large cities. Furthermore, people don't all base their happiness on the same criteria as we have different ideals, goals, hopes and dreams, yet indexes such as this are all based on the same criteria.

[Moonlight Graham]

"Happiest country" shouldn't be measured with education levels or economic prosperity. As we know, money doesn't really buy happiness. You can have people who may not live as long or have as high a standard of living but have tighly-knit communities and more loving families and social lives who would consider themselves happier than many people in countries on the list. So the way they say they compute the score on this list you could never have an African or Latin American country on this list.

It's subjective, but any "happiness" scale should be measured on how much people consider themselves to be happy. There are other lists that do that better.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Moonlight Graham