Happy, happy, happy worldwide

[Mike Cl]

2021 Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of pandemic

https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/2021-happiness-report-world-shows-resilience-in-face-of-pandemic/

The annual report, produced by the U.N Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks 149 countries based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy and the opinions of residents. Surveys ask respondents to indicate on a 1-10 scale how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

Due to the pandemic, the surveys were done in slightly fewer than 100 countries for this year’s World Happiness Report, the ninth one compiled since the project started. Index rankings for the other nations were based on estimates from past data.

The results from both methods had European countries occupying nine of the top 10 spots on the list of the word’s happiest places, with New Zealand rounding out the group. The top 10 countries are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Austria.

It was the fourth consecutive year that Finland came out on top. The United States, which was at No. 13 five years ago, slipped from 18th to 19th place. On a shortened list ranking only those countries surveyed, the U.S. placed 14th.

Once upon a time in a land long, long ago, we (the US) led in almost all of the rankings and polls rating everything from happiness to education, to best medical systems and best manufacturing, etc.  Now, we don't even come close.  In these days, 19th happiest is about as well as one can expect (I'm a bit surprised we are that high); so just sing the Be Happy song............................

[Cassia]

I am typically happy but that doesn't mean that things can't get better ;). I bet Americans have more stress and uncertainty in general than the peoples of the Euro/Nordic Socialist Democracies.

[Mike Cl]

personally, I've stopped worrying what being happy would look like.  I know what contentment feels like and I'm there.  The rest of the country---well, who the fuck knows what makes them happy???Trump?  I think there are a bunch (and I mean a bunch!!) of people who are only happy when they are hating.

[SGOS]

If I stand back and look at the US as a whole, I would say the US must not be high on the happy scale. What I read in the media makes the country seem even less happy.  Happiness is something we recognize when it happens, but it's a very hard thing to measure. 

Instead of measuring happiness, how would you DESCRIBE a country's people?  I would describe my countrymen as braced to kick ass.  In regards to the rest of the world, this must appear to be an undeniable quality about people in the US, but that demeanor goes much farther.  I see Americans as ready to kick their neighbors' asses as well, and as viciously as possible.  I'm more concerned about that than being way down at 19 on the happy scale.  A more important question to me is why are we so high on the anger scale?

[Unbeliever]

I don't strive to achieve happiness, but to avoid unhappiness.

[drunkenshoe]

It's a loooong way for me... But did they consider that a 'happy happy happy world' could actually mean 'crazy crazy crazy world' with a creepy, sedated grin on its face?

[GSOgymrat]

There are polls indicating people's feelings of well-being varies with age.



It appears many Americans are dissatisfied but that could simply be propaganda. There is a lot of money to be made from dissatisfied people. Content people are not motivated to buy things they don't need. Advertising creates the illusion of need.

[Blackleaf]

So people are most pissy when they're in their 50s, and they peek in their 80s? That seems unusual.

[Hydra009]

There are polls indicating people's feelings of well-being varies with age.

With my luck, I'll kick the bucket at 51.

[Hydra009]

So people are most pissy when they're in their 50s, and they peek in their 80s? That seems unusual.

Before/after retirement?

[GSOgymrat]

So people are most pissy when they're in their 50s, and they peek in their 80s? That seems unusual.

Many people in their 50s are both concerned about their children and also caring for elderly parents or mourning their loss. People in their 50s are often at the peak of their careers, which is stressful, or alternatively, feel like they should be at the peak of their career and they’re not. Finding a job or dating in your 50s may be challenging because there can be an expectation that those areas of one's life should be sorted out.

[Blackleaf]

Before/after retirement?

I don't know... I'm sure some people have fun at their retirement, but others must get bored and not know what to do with themselves. There are a couple of old guys at my workplace who still work for that exact reason. They just wanted something to do.

I can't really think of any age group that doesn't have its own problems. We typically imagine our childhoods with fondness. We had few responsibilities, but virtually no freedoms. Then there are the stresses of school, and the stresses of home life. As you get older, you have more responsibilities put on you, but also more freedom. It can feel like your safety net leaves you as you have to find a way to support yourself. Moving out was very freeing to me, but my life also just feels very...repetitive. The cycle of sleep, eat, work, repeat feels very defeating. Hairline's leaving me. Working a dead end job that I'm simultaneously lucky to have (given its essential nature while others are out of work, and the comparatively high standards compared to other similar businesses) and also ashamed of. No idea what life will have in store for me in the future, but it's hard for me to find much to look forward to.

[SGOS]

Advertising creates the illusion of need.

This is also true with political propaganda.

[Mike Cl]

I don't know... I'm sure some people have fun at their retirement, but others must get bored and not know what to do with themselves. There are a couple of old guys at my workplace who still work for that exact reason. They just wanted something to do.

I can't really think of any age group that doesn't have its own problems. We typically imagine our childhoods with fondness. We had few responsibilities, but virtually no freedoms. Then there are the stresses of school, and the stresses of home life. As you get older, you have more responsibilities put on you, but also more freedom. It can feel like your safety net leaves you as you have to find a way to support yourself. Moving out was very freeing to me, but my life also just feels very...repetitive. The cycle of sleep, eat, work, repeat feels very defeating. Hairline's leaving me. Working a dead end job that I'm simultaneously lucky to have (given its essential nature while others are out of work, and the comparatively high standards compared to other similar businesses) and also ashamed of. No idea what life will have in store for me in the future, but it's hard for me to find much to look forward to.

I have often heard the label 'worry free childhood' used when describing the arch of one's lifetime.  No period of one's life is 'worry free'.  From my earliest memories, I cannot remember a time when it was worry free.  The worries and problems change, and in hindsight they seem trivial only because we have a new and different set of worries or concerns.  At each stage of life, worries are there and at the time are not trivial.  At the other end of my life, there is a new set of worries.  What is different is I realize that there will always be worries/concerns and in a practical way, they will be dealt with and are not as bothersome as worries used to be.  But they are there.  I have also learned that the things I worry about may not be (and usually aren't) as troublesome as what life will actually throw at you.  I try to roll with the punches and just do the best I can and leave it at that.

Hydra, I am sorry you don't have much to look forward to.  What I do know for me, at this stage of the game (being old) is that I have anywhere from days to years to live.  I don't try to project the 'end' much, for it will find me at some point.  In the meantime, I love each day as it comes, even the trying ones.  I am still in the middle of a covid lockdown (personally enforced) and have a restricted routine.  But I still find things to do that I like and look forward to tomorrow for there are simply not enough years to do all that I still want to do.  And BTW, I find retirement freeing and highly entertaining.  I have enough interests that keep me going that I don't find boredom to be anywhere in my life. 

[SGOS]

I love each day as it comes, even the trying ones. 

This pretty much sums it up for me, and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with age. I look back on life as a gradual but bumpy road toward more and more contentment. In that regard, now is a good as it gets.