U.S. has not made the happiest nations list

chris888222 · Jun 6, 2011

CarbonX13 said:
Japan probably would've cracked the top five had they not suffered that major disaster a few months back.
I think otherwise.

The disaster actually proves how affectionate the Japanese were.

They really had the ???? (Japanese Spirit) I guess.

QUOTE(Raiser @ Jun 6 2011, 01:52 PM) I'm actually kind of surprised with Australia. Although I'm sure the people and country itself are quite pleasant, I've heard some nasty things about some censorship blah. "Too violent" games, movies, etc. taken to an extreme by the Government.

Maybe most don't really care, not sure.

Er.... not to be offensive, but my uncle was scolded by an (drunkard) aussie to scram and leave the country with very racist comments.

He was drunk... so I can't say much, but this already made me expect Australia to not make it into the top 10.

Guzzie · Jun 6, 2011

smile72 said:
I know, I thought Japan would have made the list for sure.
That's a joke right? You know Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world?
The corporate culture is absolutely draining in Japan.

Happiness is not tied to financial wealth (beyond a certain point).

See Bhutan and Gross National Happiness
Linked Article Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

Equally focus on those areas for a happy life.

chris888222 · Jun 6, 2011

Guzzie said:
smile72 said:

I know, I thought Japan would have made the list for sure.

Click to expand...

That's a joke right? You know Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world right?
The corporate culture is absolutely draining in Japan.

We shouldn't just judge a nation's happiness with suicides due to work.

smile72 · Jun 6, 2011

Guzzie did you read my post describing the conditions they use to measure happiness. And the U.S almost always made the list with high crime rates.

Guzzie · Jun 6, 2011

chris888222 said:
We shouldn't just judge a nation's happiness with suicides due to work.

It's a ranking of happiest countries--judging is the point.

Raiser · Jun 6, 2011

smile72 said:
I kind of guessed nobody read the article here's how they measure happiness. "The Index is based on 11 measurements of quality of life including housing, income, jobs, community, education, the environment, health, work-life balance, and life satisfaction."

Ah disregard my comment on the Australian Government censorship thing. Doubt it affects any of that. x.X

Maz7006 · Jun 6, 2011

one day, Lebanon will be on that list

yes that was a joke

smile72 · Jun 6, 2011

Raiser,well at least you admitted your error. And then read my post on what the article deals with.

Guzzie · Jun 6, 2011

smile72 said:
Guzzie did you read my post describing the conditions they use to measure happiness. And the U.S almost always made the list with high crime rates.

I think difference between Crime Rate and Work Stress is that Work stress is something that affects a large chunk of society. I know that this is beyond the scope of many forum members, but the majority of life for most people is work. It's a large part of life for most people in the world and happiness in that sector is important! Crime rate is something that has a relatively small effect on society (if anything the larger detriment is going to be the psychological fear associated with crime). Plus crime rate in the US is inflated by things like drug charges which pose no real direct threat to society (notice that 3 (4 if you include Australia) of top 10 have decriminalized Mary Jane). Unless were talking widespread violent crime I don't think that a crime rate is going to have a huge bearing on happiness.

smile72 · Jun 6, 2011

Nope the U.S has high crime rates overall. Japan also has the same drugs criminalize yet they have a lot less violent crimes. Japan murder rate is 0.83 for every 100,000 (2010) while the U.S. is 5.0 (2009). Japan also has a lower infant mortality rate, the only thing they lose to the U.S with is suicide,which as you pointed out is higher in Japan

Guzzie · Jun 6, 2011

smile72 said:
Nope the U.S has high crime rates overall. Japan also has the same drugs criminalize yet they have a lot less violent crimes. Japan murder rate is 0.83 for every 100,000 (2010) while the U.S. is 5.0 (2009). Japan also has a lower infant mortality rate, the only thing they lose to the U.S with is suicide,which as you pointed out is higher in Japan

I'm not arguing that the US has a lower crime rate. I'm just saying that Japan has a really high suicide rate due to a depressing business environment and that likely has a larger effect on happiness than crime rate and infant mortality.

smile72 · Jun 6, 2011

Japan's younger generations are actually starting to shift away from the tradition of going to college then to a big business.

naved.islam14 · Jun 6, 2011

I wonder where's Singapore.

Miss Panda · Jun 6, 2011

Danes at number one again. No surprise there they are seriously chilled out people with a very strong sense of community. I love the Danes.

Giga_Gaia · Jun 6, 2011

Canada is a nice place to live. It doesn't have a lot of crime, it's peaceful, women are hot (lots of immigrants here as well, so there is women for all tastes).

The only downside: We have snow. Snow is evil and it must die.

smile72 · Jun 6, 2011

I like snow.

shakirmoledina · Jun 6, 2011

i am surprised israel is on the list considering the problems btn israel and palestine. its as if the ppl dont know whats going on.

Miss Panda · Jun 6, 2011

Giga_Gaia said:
Canada is a nice place to live. It doesn't have a lot of crime, it's peaceful, women are hot (lots of immigrants here as well, so there is women for all tastes).

The only downside: We have snow. Snow is evil and it must die.

Snow is the BESTEST* thing about Canada. Snow is bloody brilliant. I flippin love snow. Snow is cool, literally! If you have snow God is smiling on you be happy.

*And no that isn't a word but I don't care.

@chris888222
If you describe Japanese people as affectionate one more time I'm going to have to buy a new monitor. I've already sprayed it with tea twice now.

Eric345 · Jun 6, 2011

Giga_Gaia said:
Canada is a nice place to live. It doesn't have a lot of crime, it's peaceful, women are hot (lots of immigrants here as well, so there is women for all tastes).

The only downside: We have snow. Snow is evil and it must die.

yeah agreed with you about Canada wanna move thier tired of living in Hawaii

Blebleman · Jun 6, 2011

You guys have clearly no idea how Japan is.

It's not super-duper-happy-star-rainbow-anime-manga land.

Thanks for the wake-up, Guzzie.

Japan's suicide rate is high for many reasons, the biggest of which is social pressure. Pressure to get in a good middle school, good high school, good university (with tests for all three), good company, pressure to be like everyone else ( because yes, being like everyone else is good in Japan), troubled economy (for the last 15 years).

Japan's great -- don't get me wrong. It's just not the absolute paradise some of you think it is.

U.S. has not made the happiest nations list

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