Conference turris::scandia

457.0. "World's happiest people complain" by TLE::SAVAGE () Thu Aug 17 1995 12:52

    From: [email protected] (Peter Bjoern)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Happiest Countries in World ?
    Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 18:57:54 GMT
    Organization: None
 
 
    >   The July-Aug. 1995 issue of _Psychology Today_ has an article,
    >(Mirth of Nations) which quotes some study to find the world's 
    >happiest people (How does one measure happiness?) 
    >   SURPRISE! The happiest countries were not some South Sea Paradise
    >Islands but the 5 Nordic Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
    >Iceland.) 
 
    Can't say for sure how to measure happiness. Happiness are different
    things to different people.

    Come to think of it, we may have good reasons to be happy. We live in
    countries (I guess I shall limit myself to write about Denmark) where
    the environment and the nature are not too hostile. We do not have
    earthquakes. We do not have hurricanes or tornados. We do not have to
    fear our homes being destroyed by flooding (Sorry Norway, I know!). We
    do not suffer from drought. We have no poisonous animals of any
    significance. We can bathe in our oceans without fear of sharks. We are
    not bothered by alligators. Nor do we have other wild animals attacking
    people. Killer bees are not here. We may have a forest fire once in a
    wild, or fire in farmers fields, but no fires anywhere near what the
    have suffered in L.A. or Australia. In short, chances of being hurt or
    having your life destroyed by nature are small if not virtually
    non-existing.

    We live in a well organized society where almost everything are
    functioning well. No power outages. Clean water always comming from the
    tap. Trains and busses running almost on time, but ironically we
    currently have a city with a bus-strike. Shops are always filled with a
    plentitude of state-of-the-art goods. No shortages of anything. The
    economic standard is good for most people. All common household
    appliances are owned by most people (if they want it). PCs can be found
    in more than a third of the housholds. Healthcare is readily available
    regardles of income. We live in homes of excellent standard (well, most
    people anyway). We are a homogenous people. Foreign immigration is
    (although heavily debated) still statistically insignificant. We do not
    have civil wars, nor do we have to fear war with other nations. Our
    neighbours are our friends whith whom we live peacefully, barring the
    incident with out southern neighbour 50 years ago. Crime can be found
    anywhere, but there is really no place in Copenhagen I fear to walk
    alone, even at nighttime. Chances of being victim of a violent crime is
    very small. Terrorism seems to have largely bypassed our country. Our
    cities are not burned or destroyed by riots. We live in a free and
    open-minded society. There is no censorship. People are not punished
    for what they say or think.

    We have every reason to be happy compared to how things can be
    elsewhere. And yet we complain ! We complain about everything. We
    complain about taxes. People demand higher salary. We complain about
    waiting lists in hospitals. We complain about pollution. We complain
    about crime. We complain about immigration. We complain about bad TV
    programs, and most of all we complain about the coach of the national
    soccer-team (and yet, he made us European champions). We are a nation
    of professional complainers. Some of those complaints are of course
    valid, but if we view things in a more global perspective, we really
    should have every reason to feel fortunate to live in such a place. So
    maybe enough people really do feel happy to make the top in the survey
    of happy nations.
 
    Peter

 
[ Original contributor: Otto K�stner ]
[ Originally posted on 23 Aug 1995 16:08:53 GMT ]
[ UPPERCASE added to highlight nordic nations ]
 
============================================================================
 
The New York Times reported on Sunday, that Indonesia is the most
corrupt country of the world. The least corrupt countries
of the world are New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, and Finland.
 
Ranking for 41 countries was calculated from surveys of businessmen
and journalists.  A score of 10 would be a place in which no
corruption was found and 0 a place in which corruption was
omnipresent.
 
Rank    Country                 Score
 
1       Indonesia               1.94
2       China                   2.16
3       Pakistan                2.25
4       Venezuela               2.66
5       Brazil                  2.70
6       Philippines             2.77
7       India                   2.78
8       Thailand                2.79
9       Italy                   2.99
10      Mexico                  3.18
11      Colombia                3.44
12      Greece                  4.04
13      Turkey                  4.10
14      Hungary                 4.12
15      South Korea             4.29
16      Spain                   4.35
17      Taiwan                  5.08
18      Argentina               5.24
19      Malaysia                5.28
20      Portugal                5.56
21      South Africa            5.62
22      Japan                   6.72
23      Belgium/Luxembourg      6.85
24      France                  7.00
25      Hong Kong               7.12
26      Austria                 7.13
27      United States           7.79
28      Chile                   7.94
29      Germany                 8.14
30      Britain                 8.57
31      Ireland                 8.57
32      NORWAY                  8.61
33      The Netherlands         8.69
34      Switzerland             8.76
35      Australia               8.80
36      Canada                  8.87
37      SWEDEN                  8.87
38      FINLAND                 9.12
39      Singapore               9.26
40      DENMARK                 9.32
41      New Zealand             9.55
 
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