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Australia really has among the best of all worlds and it's why it is always ranked so high on these happiness rankings. How can you be miserable when you live in a functioning country with little corruption in a place like this?
So all bar one Nordic/Scandinavian countries are in the top 5, with Sweden still in the top 10. Seems a pretty obvious case of unconscious or unacknowledged cultural bias. A survey conducted by Singaporeans, Japanese or whoever would yield very different outcomes.
There are some solid rumours that they made the survey in a pub in the finnish city of Turku after a round of a pint of Vodka with the locals. Also that one of the respondents presented himself as a guy who like to write funny posts on an internet forum
So all bar one Nordic/Scandinavian countries are in the top 5, with Sweden still in the top 10. Seems a pretty obvious case of unconscious or unacknowledged cultural bias. A survey conducted by Singaporeans, Japanese or whoever would yield very different outcomes.
Or maybe their culture is one that produces such results? I do not know, would have to see the methodology, but I am assuming they applied the same methodology to all countries? How many measures were subjective vs objective?
Having been to those countries many times, I do think though that those countries are very nice to live in, I sure would not complain about it (except the weather, lol).
Australia really has among the best of all worlds and it's why it is always ranked so high on these happiness rankings. How can you be miserable when you live in a functioning country with little corruption in a place like this?
Ahh, my favourite place in the country. You know they are still recovering from Cyclone Debbie though, which hit last year?
Like people all over the world, we get a bit miserable when we are stuck in traffic jams. Sydney is particularly difficult to fix in that regard as we have all the waterways crossing it, the real estate prices are so high that all the new infrastructure is mega expensive as they need to resume property. Also all the building is making the roads be filled with trucks.
Then, in common with many countries, some of our politicians seem more focused on the extra marital relationships of other politicians rather than the welfare of the country. By and large, we do not care what they do in their private lives but we do care what they do for the country.
Still, it gives us perspective. When my friends and I whinge about our partners...playing too much golf...watching too much television....forgetting to bring in the garbage bins.....we think at least they are not behaving like Barnaby Joyce and the others. ( to our knowledge!!)
Or maybe their culture is one that produces such results? I do not know, would have to see the methodology, but I am assuming they applied the same methodology to all countries? How many measures were subjective vs objective?
Having been to those countries many times, I do think though that those countries are very nice to live in, I sure would not complain about it (except the weather, lol).
Different cultures place different priorities on various societal values, lifestyle outcomes or social dynamics. I suspect the metrics used to assess "happiness" or "welfare" just align more closely to Nordic norms than those of other groups.
Some cultures value personal independence (economic, social etc) pretty highly, for example, which would not fit the social welfare model in place in many of the countries rated highly in this survey.
I think it's more cultural than anything else, it seems to me that other less developed countries like Thailand have a good level of happiness. Although of course having a home, what to eat and be safe remains primary needs.
But I know many people who have everything a man could dream and yet are sad.
There was a recent study that claimed that happiness was 50% genetic and that some of the genes that came to us from Neanderthal concerned depression. So maybe happiness is beyond of our own control.
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