The Danish Don't Have the Secret to Happiness

> [Denmark] might not get your pulse racing like the Lower East Side or Copacabana, but in the long run a solid pension fund and reliable broadband will always win the day—

This does not seem entirely truthful, at least regarding Danish youth. Danish art and culture is, and have for a long time been, in big demand. Music magazines continuously scope out the different scenes. Maybe most recently, danish punk had an enormous period of exposition when acts like Ice Age and Lower got picked up by Pitchfork. MØ is another example. I have a feeling too that most people here are familiar with Danish design and architecture and I often hear Copenhagen mentioned as the (street?) fashion capital of the world. Furthermore, it seems scandinavia in general is having a pretty big tech and startup resurgence right now. Web 2.0 and the whole App thing seems to fit the general culture well. Perhaps because the living standards are quite high... the smartphone market for instance, is entirely saturated. Lastly, Denmark is often described as one of the countries where the youth drink the most which suggest a vibrant night life (I can attest to that; there's a way too loud party next door right now. Slap af, det er lige meget.). This article seems pretty good, if you want to read more: http://www.nordicwelfare.org/PageFiles/4207/Gundelach%20J%C3...

Now, perhaps Danes stagnate when they get older, and certainly not everyone works in the arts. Nor does everyone live in the heart of Copenhagen. I do feel though, that Denmark being dull has more to do with certain people having a tiny reference frame than the actual situation they are in or can create for themselves.

Miscellaneous comments on the article, from the perspective of a Greek-American who's lived some years in Denmark. Admittedly a bit disjointed and anecdotal, but then so was the article...

1. The biggest "contentedness" aspect imo is not only people's economic position, but extraordinarily high confidence in it. To compare with neighboring Germany, Germans are economically not much worse off, and their poverty rate is only moderately higher. But middle-class and especially lower-middle-class Germans feel much less secure about their status. In Eurostat surveys, something like 10-15% of Danes report worrying that they or a family member might fall into poverty, but it's ~40% in Germany (and higher in other parts of Europe).

2. I haven't found this part to be at all true: Newspaper editor Anne Knudsen had an interesting theory relating to why the Danes continue to respond positively to happiness surveys: “In Denmark it is shameful to be unhappy,” she told me.

It's possible this isn't what she means, but in my experience Danes are much more likely to be open about things like being treated for depression than Americans are; it's still seen as shameful in the US to a much greater extent. The social system also supports it, e.g. students or employees sometimes take off time due to mental-health issues or stress, and are usually pretty open about it.

3. I don't find the "Jante Law" particularly useful as an interpretative device for understanding Scandinavian society, at least in the big cities (I've never lived in Herning or Randers or such, so can't speak to them). The novel it comes from is mainly a satire of small-town mentality of the era it was written (the 1930s, when most of Scandinavia's population lived in such towns). Some parts are distinctively Scandinavian, but in my opinion most are not. For comparison, read Sinclair Lewis's 1920 novel Main Street, a satire of American small-town mentality, and you'll find a very similar mentality being parodied. And you still find it in the U.S. quite a bit; there's a deep suspicion in smaller town and rural areas of people who are perceived as thinking that they're "better" than their roots.

I'm so glad to read this. I spent two weeks in Copenhagen last year, I wanted to love it... but in the end, the "Happiest country in the world" poster in the airport felt like creepy state propaganda.

Copenhagen had lots of visible social issues. There were lots of people begging for money in the train stations, which seemed to belie Denmark's generous welfare. Graffiti was everywhere. If you had the misfortune to have to walk down Istedgade to your accommodation, you were accosted & grabbed by several desperate & grim looking prostitutes. Everything was disorganized & broken - midway through my trip I started taking photos of Windows blue screens & Windows XP rebooting on the trains, just because I saw it everywhere. Ticket machines & ATMs often didn't work. My internet wasn't reliable either, despite the claims of superior Danish internet. No one seemed to care that things were broken.

The monoculture was eerie. My friends all stayed at different AirBnBs across the city, and yet all of our apartments looked nearly identical: same floorboards, same IKEA furniture, even the exact same brand & size of TV. It was as if no-one dared admit they might want something different or more than their neighbors have. The housing made me feel very fortunate for what we have in Australia. The Danes didn't seem happy, just that they were equally grumpy. It felt "communist" to me, though I suppose "socialist" would be more accurate.

The truly bizarre thing is that just across the water, barely 20km away in Malmö (Sweden), things felt so much happier, more diverse & vibrant & creative & colorful, no-one begging, everything "just worked" and the people were friendlier.

I don't want to be so down on Copenhagen, I've seen some awesome design & software come from there. I did like Copenhagen Airport, and they have the friendliest customs officials I've ever encountered. Tivoli theme park was nice. But for the most part, Copenhagen gave me a really creepy and unhappy feeling that I never forgot. Hawaii was a far happier place.

Does anyone have an opinion on why Denmark has such a high household debt to income ratio [1]? At 300% plus debt to income, they're basically the most indebted households on earth. Debt per adult is 4th highest in the world [2]. The median wealth per adult is similar to the US, but they're carrying twice as much debt [3].

That would seem to be an extreme threat to future happiness. It seems very out of place with the culture.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-06/world-s-hi...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per...

[3] http://angrybearblog.com/2014/10/u-s-median-wealth-up-from-2...

As they mention in the end of the article - most Danes think they're in the best possible place in the world and have the best life you can get. I guess that is being happy? Surely you can argue whether it's factually true - but if you think you are happy - aren't you? :-)

So let's get this straight: The author takes a single critique of Danish culture. Then asserts that this demonstrates that Danes can't be all that happy, and therefore concludes the Danes really just have low expectations.

Then the author notes that low Gini coefficients tend to be considered a good thing for happiness. But the author decides that actually low Gini coefficients (combined with Denmark's shocking ethnic homogeneity) are actually a bad thing, so Danes have even less excuse to be happy.

The "low expectations" trope trotted out again. When almost every important economic and social metric is in world leading territory, then I think it'd be better expressed as "ambitious, but realistic expectations".

The Danish do not exclusively hold the secret to happiness. As the article ultimately concedes, it's not a secret that egalitarian societies are happier, which - from a Danish perspective - means they're more successful.

Best way I ever heard the law of jante described, was in a TV-show about the Danes for an American TV-channel ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_jo69ZTwbE ).

Where some dude says "They have this thing called jantelaw, which essentically says that you're no better than anybody else, a garbage man can live in a middleclass neighborhood and hold his head high." - Which I think is a nice way to look at it.

Of course there's differences and social "classes", but there is some truth to the contentedness of many Danes, many people know that more stuff will not necessarily make them happier, so why work so hard to earn money for it?

I personally believe that Jantelagen are a shield against the kind of corrupt sociopathy that's developing in the United States which is causing income inequality, awful social services, higher taxes (with no return), and persistent wars. It's been my secret belief that having these kinds of core values ingrained in your society will somewhat keep that kind of awful behavior from expressing itself. It's not just a Danish thing, but a Scandinavian thing (my experience having been with the Swedes). Jantelagen should be celebrated.

This sounds like a hit piece to me. Too much generalizations that seem to be thinly disguised pre-props for proganda.

We all know that the Danish has one of the best social welfare systems in the world and it is a system created by a government that has one of the highest rates of voter participation in the world. So seems to me that they like what they have. However, some self interested big wigs might have a different idea.

The idea that there is no creativity or inventiveness seems dishonest to me. For one, we are talking about a region that is a small fraction of the population of other nations. It is statistically correct that they are not the "most" innovative region in the world. Yet in fact, they are one of the leaders in software innovation and other tech industry movements. Seems to me they they are statistically ahead of the curve.

Also, all the Danish I've ever met (well the few that I have) are awesome people in general. I'd say that I've had probably the best conversations and times with my Danish friends and the same goes true with many other people from that region. So the rings to me that they are not just happy because of the "welfare state", but because they, unlike the author's narrow reporting, do have a thriving culture.

With that being said, I don't trust the intentions of this article. But that's just my opinion, I guess.

The Law of Jante is like institutionalized ego death, perhaps making Danes the first enlightened nation. Entertaining to consider, at the least.

As a dane I don't feel negative about the law of jante (even though it is formulated negatively to lampoon the Scandinavian mindset). I find it communal and egalitarian. But I guess that viewpoint is hard to understand for people from more competitive and individual societies.

Alternative title: You shall not think you're happier than we are.

What do you need for a non-boring life? You can hop on the plane, you know, and be in any place you consider non-boring in a few hours.