Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, with the record-breaking 2.30 million percent inflation almost nobody is happy there.
Not to mention water and food shortages...
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World Happiness Report, 2019
61–67 of 67 posts
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#62Interesting that GINI coefficient doesn't seem to be correlated with happiness (except in Europe, for some reason). Reminds me of Taleb's assertion that people don't resent the rich simply for being rich, they resent rich people who have no skin in the game. Perhaps rich Europeans are perceived as having less skin in the game?
As the poll question was to rate how high you are in the space of best/worst possible life for you, maybe the scale of imagined possibilities is just narrower in countries with lower social mobility? This hypothesis could be tested, I wonder if someone has done it.
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#63Interesting that Australia is so high up, while SE Asia so low. My experience of both (specifically Cambodia) is exactly the reverse. But I suspect the cultural factors are at play here. Ask an Aussie if they're living the best life and they'll say yes, proud in their Lucky Country and the best beaches in the world (whichever city an Aussie inhabits has the "best beaches in the world"). While in Cambodia they're more…
Seeing both, this isn't true.
Cambodia has a much higher suicide rate than Australia.
Money is happiness. It's only the ultra rich who think otherwise.
Seeing kids die at the rate they do in Cambodia is going to make them unhappy. I find it strange people think other wise.
Almost no parents will get to send their kids to an ok university. Many can't even send them to the finish of school.
> strong supportive family connections.
This isn't as true as you think. They must socially look this way, but it often doesn't play out that way. With more money this might however help with happiness... But equally societies with more money might move away from this model because it's very toxic at times.
And talk to them about the fact they are under a virtual dictatorship....
They have something great, but without money, they get more of the horrors of life thrust upon them.
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#64The World Happiness Report numbers are based only on the Cantril ladder. I don't get why they don't use an average of the Cantril ladder, positive affect, and negative affect. The Cantril ladder asks respondents the following question: "Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder repres…
I think you are right, but these studies are still generally interesting I think the dynamics between GDP per capita, GINI and happiness/satisfaction are pretty interesting
If the “happiness/satisfaction” metric is rubbish though, then all the correlations are fairly meaningless, and are of interest only to the extent that they do or do not back up one’s own political opinions.
Applying this scale cross-culturally, you just wind up measuring some weird convolution between actual subjective well-being and some kind of “what range of values is it culturally acceptable to answer this personal question about my wellbeing from a stranger with?” effect.
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea that people resent inequality always seemed incredibly sketchy to me. Imagine a super-wealthy country where 99% of population has a yearly income of $200k, and the 1% has an income of $200m. This society would be very unequal, and yet somehow I can't imagine the 99% there being resentful of the rich, voting for populists etc. So, I think that people resent the rich only if they themselves are struggling to g…
The idea that people resent inequality might seem sketchy to some or self evident to others. A better way is to actually ask them how they feel and correlate with gini. Which is what the study did.
Correlation is not causation though.
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#66The grass is always greener on the other side of the nuclear reactor
Re: World Happiness Report, 2019
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea that people resent inequality always seemed incredibly sketchy to me. Imagine a super-wealthy country where 99% of population has a yearly income of $200k, and the 1% has an income of $200m. This society would be very unequal, and yet somehow I can't imagine the 99% there being resentful of the rich, voting for populists etc. So, I think that people resent the rich only if they themselves are struggling to g…
Sweden is, or used to be, sort of like that. Sweden has high wealth inequality and more billionaires per capita than many other countries. But the whole thing is probably imploding now anyway. I think people misunderstand a bit. It isn't wealth that is the problem as such. It is that wealth is a symptom of inequality. If you for example have good accessible schools for much of the population where having a privileged…
>then naturally it will be relatively hard to get rich because there is so much competition.
This doesn't follow. The economy is not a zero-sum game. edit: presuming a sufficiently elastic money supply.