World’s happiest countries: Here’s why U.S. slipped in new report

TU Curmudgeon · Mar 20, 2019

World’s happiest countries: Here’s why U.S. slipped in new report

HELSINKI, March 20 (Reuters) – Finland topped the ranking of the world’s happiest countries for the second year in a row, with the Nordic countries taking the leading spots, an annual survey issued on Wednesday showed.

South Sudan came last in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s 2019 World Happiness Report.

It ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns’ happiness is boosted by access to nature, safety, affordable childcare, free education and heavily subsidized healthcare.

The top 10 was again dominated by the Nordics, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland taking the other leading spots followed by Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. The United States dropped one place to 19th.

COMMENT:-

I wouldn't worry about being 19th out of 156. After all that's still in the top 1/8th.

However, the whole report might be interesting to some people and there is a link to it in the article.

PS - The reason for the drop is NOT "Donald John Trump".

PPS - Did you know that 60% of the top 10 countries are monarchies?

Verax · Mar 20, 2019

Fins are just happy from all that fresh air and sunshine they get from raking.

OlNate · Mar 20, 2019

Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism.

:lol:

Verax · Mar 20, 2019

OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. :lol:

Why would all citizens having their healthcare covered 100% and living a comfortable life make them happier though?

RabidAlpaca · Mar 20, 2019

OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. :lol:

Verax said:
Why would all citizens having their healthcare covered 100% and living a comfortable life make them happier though?

I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

PeteEU · Mar 20, 2019

God damn Fins.....I blame the Swedes cause why not.

Sent from my Honor 8X using Tapatalk

OlNate · Mar 20, 2019

Verax said:
Why would all citizens having their healthcare covered 100% and living a comfortable life make them happier though?

:lol: Good point...health and comfort always piss me off...and if it applies to my family, well... I almost punched the nurse in the face when she told me my son's last visit to the doctor would cost me 0 dollars and 0 cents.

PeteEU · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

That sounds absolutely horrible! But freedom and stuff... Its all the <insert preference> fault....I still blame the Swedes.

Now if you will excuse me, I will now go have my Marabou chocolate while watching a rerun of Hamilton....

Sent from my Honor 8X using Tapatalk

OlNate · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

Damn, even Canada is jealous...

:lol:

Obscurity · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

They do want it, polling consistently shows that the americans want it, but our government doesn't give a damn. And unlike you europeans, us americans are too divided on stupid BS issues to rise up and throw these crooks out.

Moderate Right · Mar 20, 2019

Most, if not all, of these countries are rather small, population wise. The larger a country's population the more problems there are bound to be. And, the US has built ourselves up to be the largest superpower in the world. It helps regarding keeping us free and it also helps in keeping others free around the world. I mean NATO wasn't really formed to keep America safe from Russia. It was formed to keep European and other countries over there free. I mean, the US does not need NATO to keep us free. But, Finland needs NATO to keep them free. If Finland is attacked the US military will be a huge help to them. If the US is attacked, how much help is Finland's military going to be to us?

And, the same goes for our economy. Our economy can do lasting damage to others in the world through sanctions. Can Finland use it's economic might to influence anyone? Some of these small population European countries are able to do much more for their people safety net wise because they sponge dollars off the US for their protection so they can use their dollars for their liberal policies. Look what would really happen if Trump cut our military and foreign aid budgets down to zero and used the money for liberal safety net programs here in the US. Our country would be happier and Finland would be annexed by Russia. Would Finland be happy then if that happened?

Sampson Simpson · Mar 20, 2019

TU Curmudgeon said:
From The San Jose Mercury News

World’s happiest countries: Here’s why U.S. slipped in new report

HELSINKI, March 20 (Reuters) – Finland topped the ranking of the world’s happiest countries for the second year in a row, with the Nordic countries taking the leading spots, an annual survey issued on Wednesday showed.

South Sudan came last in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s 2019 World Happiness Report.

It ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns’ happiness is boosted by access to nature, safety, affordable childcare, free education and heavily subsidized healthcare.

The top 10 was again dominated by the Nordics, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland taking the other leading spots followed by Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. The United States dropped one place to 19th.

COMMENT:-

I wouldn't worry about being 19th out of 156. After all that's still in the top 1/8th.

However, the whole report might be interesting to some people and there is a link to it in the article.

PS - The reason for the drop is NOT "Donald John Trump".

PPS - Did you know that 60% of the top 10 countries are monarchies?

Those darn socialist countries are so happy. They have such a higher quality of life, have healthcare, etc. We have greedy rich people, a stupid political system, and a bunch of people who worship those who are robbing the country blind and screwing them

OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. :lol:

A country where the government works for the people and not just businesses. So they pay more in taxes, they get a hell of a lot in return and are happy for it.

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

propaganda and a broken system that allows the rich to control the politicians, the media, the narrative, everything

Obscurity said:
They do want it, polling consistently shows that the americans want it, but our government doesn't give a damn. And unlike you europeans, us americans are too divided on stupid BS issues to rise up and throw these crooks out.

Let's be real, one side focuses on stupid BS issues and are swayed by propaganda. The other side is furious at what is going on. Just look at Dems calling for campaign finance reform and scumbag McConnel to pander to his idiot base calls that Socialistic.

RabidAlpaca · Mar 20, 2019

Obscurity said:
They do want it, polling consistently shows that the americans want it, but our government doesn't give a damn. And unlike you europeans, us americans are too divided on stupid BS issues to rise up and throw these crooks out.

No, I think there really is just a loud enough group of ignorant Americans that literally do not want these things. An example:

Moderate Right said:
Most, if not all, of these countries are rather small, population wise. The larger a country's population the more problems there are bound to be. And, the US has built ourselves up to be the largest superpower in the world. It helps regarding keeping us free and it also helps in keeping others free around the world. I mean NATO wasn't really formed to keep America safe from Russia. It was formed to keep European and other countries over there free. I mean, the US does not need NATO to keep us free. But, Finland needs NATO to keep them free. If Finland is attacked the US military will be a huge help to them. If the US is attacked, how much help is Finland's military going to be to us?

And, the same goes for our economy. Our economy can do lasting damage to others in the world through sanctions. Can Finland use it's economic might to influence anyone? Some of these small population European countries are able to do much more for their people safety net wise because they sponge dollars off the US for their protection so they can use their dollars for their liberal policies. Look what would really happen if Trump cut our military and foreign aid budgets down to zero and used the money for liberal safety net programs here in the US. Our country would be happier and Finland would be annexed by Russia. Would they be happy then if that happened?

I think it's hilarioius that no matter what the topic, the go-to right wing response to anything successful in other countries is "We're America, we can't do that", as if the laws of economics, physics and nature of the world just work differently there. You should read more and try harder to come up with coherent arguments.

JustHanging · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
No, I think there really is just a loud enough group of ignorant Americans that literally do not want these things. An example:

I think it's hilarioius that no matter what the topic, the go-to right wing response to anything successful in other countries is "We're America, we can't do that", as if the laws of economics, physics and nature of the world just work differently there. You should read more and try harder to come up with coherent arguments.

Hang on a sec, some things definitely work differently in many parts of the USA. Like the earth is only 6000 years old. Vaccines give children autism. Coal is "clean." Refusing to rent to people because their skin is black does not make you a racist, but rather a smart businessman.

Moderate Right · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
No, I think there really is just a loud enough group of ignorant Americans that literally do not want these things. An example:

I think it's hilarioius that no matter what the topic, the go-to right wing response to anything successful in other countries is "We're America, we can't do that", as if the laws of economics, physics and nature of the world just work differently there. You should read more and try harder to come up with coherent arguments.

There is a huge difference between a country with 5 million people and a country with over 300 million. It's like new treatments being tried in the healthcare field. We find a drug or vaccine that maybe cures HIV in rats and then we try it on humans and it is a total fail. Something works perfectly in a petri dish but doesn't work in humans. We test a new flight system in a new plane in the testing stage and it works perfectly, only to have two major crashes killing over 300 people in actual flights. The left doesn't seem to acknowledge this. "Oh, it worked in this country with 5 million people so there's no reason it shouldn't work in a country with over 300 million".

RabidAlpaca · Mar 20, 2019

Moderate Right said:
There is a huge difference between a country with 5 million people and a country with over 300 million. It's like new treatments being tried in the healthcare field. We find a drug or vaccine that maybe cures HIV in rats and then we try it on humans and it is a total fail. Something works perfectly in a petri dish but doesn't work in humans. We test a new flight system in a new plane in the testing stage and it works perfectly, only to have two major crashes killing over 300 people in actual flights. The left doesn't seem to acknowledge this. "Oh, it worked in this country with 5 million people so there's no reason it shouldn't work in a country with over 300 million".

Your argument is completely stupid because any of it could be implemented at the state level like 50 little countries. Just admit you don't want affordable health care, paternity leave or more vacation. Admitting you want that would be admitting you don't have it now because America has serious room for improvement in some areas.

HenryChinaski · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

But socialism and people dying in the streets and stuff..

RabidAlpaca · Mar 20, 2019

HenryChinaski said:
But socialism and people dying in the streets and stuff..

You know, you'd think so, but I haven't seen a homeless person in the 13 years I've been in Germany. Saw them all the time in the US.

Xelor · Mar 20, 2019

TU Curmudgeon said:
...
COMMENT:-

I wouldn't worry about being 19th out of 156. After all that's still in the top 1/8th.

However, the whole report might be interesting to some people and there is a link to it in the article.

PS - The reason for the drop is NOT "Donald John Trump".

PPS - Did you know that 60% of the top 10 countries are monarchies?

Red:

Ten Happiest Countries and their types of government:
1. Finland (7.769) -- Republic
2. Denmark (7.600) -- Constitutional monarchy
3. Norway (7.554) -- Constitutional monarchy
4. Iceland (7.494) -- Constitutional republic
5. Netherlands (7.488) -- Constitutional monarchy
6. Switzerland (7.480) -- Federation (however, Switzerland functions like a republic, but strictly it isn't)
7. Sweden (7.343) -- Constitutional monarchy
8. New Zealand (7.307) -- Parliamentary democracy and commonwealth realm
9. Canada (7.278) -- Parliamentary democracy, a federation, and a constitutional monarchy
10. Austria (7.246) -- Federal republic

Yes, strictly, they're monarchies; however, without qualification calling the above ones that is representationally unfaithful because as goes legislating and formal political authority, they are but figureheads.

One of the very few (two I think) monarchies that isn't on the list is Monaco. I don't know why it's not on the list, but if you've ever been there -- I suggest going this coming Memorial Day (US) weekend if you can still find a place to stay -- you'll know there's little if anything going on there about which to be unhappy.

Exceptions:

[*=1]If you're addicted to gambling, you won't want to be a Monegasque. If one must gamble, better to be a foreign national residing there.
[*=1]If you feel obliged to walk around without shoes, don't even go there.
[*=1]Not suggested, but allowed: driving. Driving isn't the issue; parking is.

prometeus · Mar 20, 2019

RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.

Lots of people are too stupid to recognize something good when they see it or feel inferior if someone is as happy as they are.

prometeus · Mar 20, 2019

PeteEU said:
God damn Fins.....I blame the Swedes cause why not.

I blame Hillary and Mueller and fake news.

prometeus · Mar 20, 2019

PeteEU said:
That sounds absolutely horrible! But freedom and stuff... Its all the <insert preference> fault....I still blame the Swedes.

Now if you will excuse me, I will now go have my Marabou chocolate while watching a rerun of Hamilton....

You should blame your poor taste in chocolate. Stop having that junk and get something decent at least like Sprüngli and you too will be happy.

JustHanging · Mar 20, 2019

Xelor said:
[*=1]Not suggested, but allowed: driving. Driving isn't the issue; parking is.
[/LIST]

It was different when I visited. We drove in from the West, and traffic was backed right up. Took about 1/2 hour to make it into the heart of Monaco, but parking was a breeze, just used the underground parking by the Casino Monte-Carlo. Expensive that, like everything else there lol.

For sports car lovers, I swear I saw every variation of every expensive sports car all parked around Place du Casino. Top of the line Porsches were the inexpensive cars.

ElChupacabra · Mar 20, 2019

Verax said:
Why would all citizens having their healthcare covered 100% and living a comfortable life make them happier though?

Seriously. I would say they're a bunch of pansies because they're missing out on the thrill of not knowing how I'm going to afford healthcare if I don't have the subsidized variety through my employer. You have to risk your life to appreciate living!

Verax · Mar 20, 2019

ElChupacabra said:
Seriously. I would say they're a bunch of pansies because they're missing out on the thrill of not knowing how I'm going to afford healthcare if I don't have the subsidized variety through my employer. You have to risk your life to appreciate living!

Exactly. Your life has no value unless you're fighting for it every day.

World’s happiest countries: Here’s why U.S. slipped in new report

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)

Verax

Disappointed in Trump

OlNate

Shameless Canuck

Verax

Disappointed in Trump

RabidAlpaca

Engineer

PeteEU

OlNate

Shameless Canuck

PeteEU

OlNate

Shameless Canuck

Obscurity

Moderate Right

Sampson Simpson

RabidAlpaca

Engineer

JustHanging

Moderate Right

RabidAlpaca

Engineer

HenryChinaski

RabidAlpaca

Engineer

Xelor

prometeus

prometeus

prometeus

JustHanging

ElChupacabra

Me cago en las cabras!

Verax

Disappointed in Trump