Denmark is now world's happiest nation
news.bbc.co.uk
news.bbc.co.uk
The biggest problem that I can see with these kinds of surveys is that the shade of meaning of the word "happy" varies from language to language. Hell, even in English if you ask me if I'm "happy" then I won't be precisely sure that you mean.
Look where people are moving. Moving to a country, they are doing something right. Moving away, they're doing something wrong. Want to move away but it is against the law: fucked.
Using statistics from the Cuban Health Ministry and Donate-Armada's own study of suicides in 1984, when she was working for the Health Ministry, the study argues that the island's people have been emotionally shattered since the failure of President Fidel Castro's plans for a record 10 million ton sugar harvest in 1970.
``It was the first break in the collective conscience regarding the revolution's ability to provide coherent answers to economic problems,'' said Donate-Armada, a psychologist who left Cuba in 1993.
The island's suicide rate nearly tripled after that catastrophe, from 8 per 100,000 people in 1969 to 23.2 per 100,000 in 1982, the study reported.
So bad was the crisis that in 1979 the government classified suicide statistics as state secrets, the study added, and began hiding them under other categories like ``violent deaths'' or ``other unclassified physiological illnesses.''
http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/suicidepidemic.html
According to the WHO, in 1996, Cuba's suicide rate was 24.5 per 100,000 for men and 12.0 in 100,000 for women.
For comparison, in US the figures are 17.9 per 100,000 per year for men, and 4.2 per 100,000 per year for women.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicider...
However, one should keep in mind Cuba is an atheist state, while in US many people are more religious, which could lead to underreporting.
It is very patronizing to assume people make decisions that aren't in their best interest. You can certainly point to lots of irrational behavior, but generally people move to where their lives will be easier.
The biggest problem with happiness research is that there is no objective measure of happiness, and claims are relative. Poor in a village in Thailand = happy. Poor outside LA = unhappy.
During the War Between the States, the Lincoln government spread rumors in Ireland and other European countries that the streets in America were literally paved with gold. When impoverished immigrants showed up on Ellis Island, they were offered a choice between slaves wages in factories, and the draft.
Without complete information, people don't always make the best decisions.
People move to where they think their lives will be easier.
So in the case of immigration to the US, the things they think match reality. This is actually a great example of people doing things they think are in their best interest that actually are.
On the issue of cities vs. suburban, people drastically undervalue the increased variety and choice in cities. Economically speaking, wine is wine - despite the fact that a wine store with 1000 varieties is better than a corner store with 5. The rub is that this kind of value is difficult to account for.
I'd move back to the city in a second if I could afford it. The $/sqft is the reason we left. Kind of tough when there are 5 people living off my salary (me, wife, 2 kids, mother-in-law).
There is actually a really interesting article about why Iceland ranked so high that makes some nice comments about the evolving family structure:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/iceland
"Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation. Put those three factors together - loads of children, broken homes, absent mothers - and what you have, surely, is a recipe for misery and social chaos. But no. Iceland, the block of sub-Arctic lava to which these statistics apply, tops the latest table of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index rankings, meaning that as a society and as an economy - in terms of wealth, health and education - they are champions of the world."
For instance, one issue that tends to fascinate is why silicon valley is so far ahead of everyone else. I read an article (in BusinessWeek, I think) about tech centers in Europe -Barcelona and Copenhagen were listed.
I don't feel any particular need to escape San Francisco, which I absolutely love. But I've heard Copenhagen and Barcelona are extremely cool cities, and I'd dig checking them out.
Problem is, many of the elements of the Danes's happiness might night work well with startup culture. There's a powerful welfare state, and a high degree of homogeneity in the populace. Silicon Valley thrives on risk, failure, and diversity.
Who knows, maybe the Danes are too happy to be a great startup center. Maybe startups are a great way to build wealth, but not happiness, and in the end, they end up hurting a region. Or maybe that's all crap, and the happiness of Denmark will cause just the right people to move and/or stay there, and build an incredible tech community...
Either way, it seems like a good topic for conversation on hacker news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjaFsXOS-y8
Not likely. And no, I'll never tire of posting that--not 'till the whole world has seen it.
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/labels/Finn%20baiting.php
...at any rate, I just watched it again. I revisted all the old pleasures (the mostly-coordinated high-socks back-up dancing, the pyscho eyebrow work of the keyboardist at 0:06, the guitarist who seems to be reconsidering the communism of his fathers, etc) and learned some new things. For instance, I'm beginning to think the whole thing has homosexual overtones...
At any rate, ignore the downmods...that and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFR-8NVjw-k qualify as classics.