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Comment by redsummer | Hacker News Reader

Great news. Of the four happiest countries in the world, three are European countries outside the EU. Autonomy is crucial to happiness.

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It's worth noting that all three of those countries are either in the EEA or have similar agreements. That means they're following EU rules without having a say in them. I'm not sure why you think they have more autonomy.

Additionally if you want to selectively quote statistics I can just come back with 4 out of the top 10 are EU nations. 7 out of the top 10 have to follow EU rules.

A wonderful example of an argument that isn't even wrong. For reference, see cherry-picking, confirmation bias, cum hoc ergo propter hoc.

Most of the world is outside of the EU. I don't think this correlation can stand.

GP referred to European countries outside the EU though; not 'the world ... outside of the EU'.

The EU forms 510/743 millions of people in Europe, so GP's point is more valid than you claim.

GP's muddled claim was "Autonomy is crucial to happiness". Given Denmark (an EU country) is number two (and has been number one three times in the past), his claim is wrong on it's face.

Edit: and that's without even addressing the ridiculous straw man of "autonomy" (all sovereign countries are autonomous - no country is forced to be or remain an EU member against their will)

He also selectively quoted facts. 4/10 in the top 10 are EU countries.

Though if you want to actually look at the information all the nordics are in there of which 3 are in the EU and 2 are in the EEA.

That's a pretty confused statement with not much relevance to this article or indeed brexit.

A great thing about autonomy is the ability to quickly solve national problems. Compare and contrast non-EU Iceland and EU Greece. Both came near to collapse due to financial crises. Iceland jailed the bankers and recovered. Greece is in the EU straight-jacket, the corrupt bankers became kings and the people will be in debt bondage for decades.

Brexit is comparable to the Berlin Wall falling. Like the Soviet Union, the technocratic elites could not imagine it collapsing until the people willed it.

> Greece is in the EU straight-jacket

The lack of freedom for Greece to manage its finances is because it's a member of the Euro, not the EU. That isn't really relevant to the UK.

And as far as I know, neither the Euro nor EU laws limited the Greeks' ability to prosecute their bankers. Is there a reason those are connected?

> And as far as I know, neither the Euro nor EU laws limited the Greeks' ability to prosecute their bankers.

Same could be said for Ireland[1]. You might wanna take a closer look.

In the words of M. Thatcher: "He who controls interest rates in Europe, controls Europe."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnG0bq77N8w]

If Greece could have solved their problems the same was Iceland did, they would have done so. The reality is Greece was economically dependent on a lot of business that stopped when the Credit Crunch hit, but Icleand had relatively small problems with three banks defaulting after a bank run and loss of access to credit, about 10% reduction in real-terms GDP.

"Relatively small", because UBS was warning the Greece faced hyperinflation, military coup, civil war — and that was just from leaving the Euro and revaluing their currency in an orderly default where they didn't have to repay everything.

It's not just the EU that told Greece what to do, the IMF is part of the Trokia.

What does that prove? Of the twenty least happy countries in the world, all are outside the EU.

Now without the EU burden, the UK will truly prosper.

Cheers.

How dare you challenge the common narrative!

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