• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

The World's Happiest Countries

Catz Part Deux said:
Are we less aware than the people in Denmark, though? OR do they have different priorities? Or is there some other factor in play?
Click to expand...

Doesn't Denmark have the highest suicide rate in the Western world?
 
Goshin said:
Doesn't Denmark have the highest suicide rate in the Western world?
Click to expand...

I have brought this point up too (and posted a chart and link) about how many of these "happy" countries have high suicide rates. I wonder how they define happiness, or if they just asked people "are you happy" and used that to base their data on.
 
Last edited:
digsbe said:
I have brought this point up too (and posted a chart and link) about how many of these "happy" countries have high suicide rates. I wonder how they define happiness, or if they just asked people "are you happy" and used that to base their data on.
Click to expand...

more or less, from the OP article.

First they asked subjects to reflect on their overall satisfaction with their lives, and ranked their answers using a "life evaluation" score from 1 to 10. Then they asked questions about how each subject had felt the previous day.
Click to expand...
 
digsbe said:
I have brought this point up too (and posted a chart and link) about how many of these "happy" countries have high suicide rates. I wonder how they define happiness, or if they just asked people "are you happy" and used that to base their data on.
Click to expand...

I guess those who weren't happy over there were too busy killing themselves at the time to be able to answer the poll question.
 
digsbe said:
I have brought this point up too (and posted a chart and link) about how many of these "happy" countries have high suicide rates. I wonder how they define happiness, or if they just asked people "are you happy" and used that to base their data on.
Click to expand...

There have been plenty of studies that match up pretty well with these results. Check out the quality of life index which measures 9 factors (including life expectancy, which suicide affects obviously) and also ranks Nordic nations very high and the US at 13, just one spot higher than the Forbes ranking. One big difference is Israel, which ranks much lower here.

And I already stated my opinion before, but suicide rate isn't a reliable indicator of a nation's quality of life. Alaska has the highest and New Jersey has the lowest suicide rate but Alaska is ranked in the middle of quality of life surveys and New Jersey ranks fairly well, but certainly not number one.
 
Apocalypse said:
I don't know the statistics, but I'm sure as hell that the majority of those 20% are not secular.
And yes both are coming from the Semite race, but the two differ in ethnicity, culture, dominating religion, language, etc.
While Arabic is considered to be the second official language here after Hebrew, it is still a minority language.
Click to expand...

Honestly, since I've never been to Israel, I couldn't say how similar or different Arabs and Jews are in that environment.

I'm thinking, though, that racial differences are a big thing.
Like how a minority may feel unhappy because most of the people don't look like them.
Jews and Arabs both eat hummus, they're the same. :2razz:
 
The high suicide rate in scandinavian countries (ex Denmark) comes from the lack of sunlight, I believe it's mainly a problem in the northern part of Finnland.
 
Djoop said:
The high suicide rate in scandinavian countries (ex Denmark) comes from the lack of sunlight, I believe it's mainly a problem in the northern part of Finnland.
Click to expand...

Can you please elaborate on that? How does the lack of sunlight cause a person to commit suicide?
 
Mustachio said:
And I already stated my opinion before, but suicide rate isn't a reliable indicator of a nation's quality of life. Alaska has the highest and New Jersey has the lowest suicide rate but Alaska is ranked in the middle of quality of life surveys and New Jersey ranks fairly well, but certainly not number one.
Click to expand...

I think this is because depression is a genetically inherited trait, that has to do with brain chemistry, and not necessarily created by external circumstances. Given the same circumstances, some people are just going to be more inclined to depression.

Giving credence to the brain chemistry issue, there are a lot of effects from light deprivation (such as experienced by residents of Alaska for several months a year). Depression is one of them. Similarly, Alaskans have the highest rate of alcoholism in the U.S. Is that because they don't like their lives, or because a lot of them suffer from Vitamin D shortages? Many people suspect the latter.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I'm thinking, though, that racial differences are a big thing.
Like how a minority may feel unhappy because most of the people don't look like them.
Click to expand...

In that case the bigger a minority is the more likely the members of that minority would not be unhappy with their difference from the majority, and the smaller the minority is the more likely they will be unhappy.

And by the way hummus is not an indication, everyone here eats hummus, even the Armenian minority eats hummus.
 
Apocalypse said:
In that case the bigger a minority is the more likely the members of that minority would not be unhappy with their difference from the majority, and the smaller the minority is the more likely they will be unhappy.
Click to expand...

I don't know if they have products fortified with vitamin D like they do here.
If they do, it might offset that phenomenon bit.

Apocalypse said:
And by the way hummus is not an indication, everyone here eats hummus, even the Armenian minority eats hummus.
Click to expand...

Was just joking.
It was a joke on the movie Bruno.
 
Very interesting - if you compare some of the countries it seems that 'thriving' correlates directly to 'suffering' - as in: if many are suffering than many aren't thriving. (example: Yemen, Macedonia, Georgia)

But in quite a few other countries very few are 'thriving' but the # of those who are 'suffering' is quite low in comparison. (example: Laos, Guinea, Liberia, Angola) So people aren't thriving in these areas but are fine with it.

Fascinating. . . perception of self-suffering and misery seem to be social or maybe cultural - rather than economical.
 
Apocalypse said:
Can you please elaborate on that? How does the lack of sunlight cause a person to commit suicide?
Click to expand...

it’s common to directly associate the lack of sunlight -and the resulting lack of serotonin- with high number of suicides. They also have a season in which there's sunlight 24/7, I can tell you from first hand experience it's stressful because you have no idea if it's night or day.
 
Djoop said:
it’s common to directly associate the lack of sunlight -and the resulting lack of serotonin- with high number of suicides. They also have a season in which there's sunlight 24/7, I can tell you from first hand experience it's stressful because you have no idea if it's night or day.
Click to expand...

Is the expectation of a 'traditional' light/dark day/night social and cultural, though?

Do natives who have *always* lived in that environment have problems - or is it just an outsider who was born/lived elsewhere and then *moved* there the only ones having issues?

I believe it would be natives = fine: outsiders = coping issues.
 
Djoop said:
it’s common to directly associate the lack of sunlight -and the resulting lack of serotonin- with high number of suicides. They also have a season in which there's sunlight 24/7, I can tell you from first hand experience it's stressful because you have no idea if it's night or day.
Click to expand...

I know that in the Netherlands for example the sun goes down at some parts of the year in 10 PM.
Yeah, I can't imagine what it'd be like if the sun would be up 24/7, sounds surreal.
 
Well - it's not *high noon* when the sun's up for it's months - it's like 'late evening' in appearance.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
Is the expectation of a 'traditional' light/dark day/night social and cultural, though?

Do natives who have *always* lived in that environment have problems - or is it just an outsider who was born/lived elsewhere and then *moved* there the only ones having issues?

I believe it would be natives = fine: outsiders = coping issues.
Click to expand...
From what I've been told: outsiders = serious isseus, natives = fewer isseus.

Apocalypse said:
I know that in the Netherlands for example the sun goes down at some parts of the year in 10 PM.
Yeah, I can't imagine what it'd be like if the sun would be up 24/7, sounds surreal.
Click to expand...

Yup, longer days during the summer and shorter ones during the winter.
 
Djoop said:
The high suicide rate in scandinavian countries (ex Denmark) comes from the lack of sunlight
Click to expand...

and the Igmar Bergman movies.

Don't forget that.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
Is the expectation of a 'traditional' light/dark day/night social and cultural, though?

Do natives who have *always* lived in that environment have problems - or is it just an outsider who was born/lived elsewhere and then *moved* there the only ones having issues?

I believe it would be natives = fine: outsiders = coping issues.
Click to expand...

We were just in Alaska, and there are plenty of people who were born there who have difficulties with the dark/light issues.

I didn't find it stressful that the sun sets, but it never really gets dark there, but after a week of it, I was really tired, because my body wanted to go, go, go, all the time. Light really affects us in ways we don't totally understand. I could not believe the amount of energy I felt up there all the time. It was kind of a rush. I never felt like sleeping.

The natives told us that they go, go, go during the summer to make the most of it. Everything is kind of frenetic, from growing enormous vegetables to tons of "midnight" activities.

Imagining the converse, though, with it being totally dark....:shudder: I don't think I'd like that.
 
Last edited:
Aunt Spiker said:
Well - it's not *high noon* when the sun's up for it's months - it's like 'late evening' in appearance.
Click to expand...
It actually is bright daylight until around 10:30 p.m. 11:30 p.m. looks like 7:30 elsewhere. And 2 a.m. is like dusk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom