101–110 of 168 posts
I wonder if the lack of ethnic diversity in the "happier" countries is a contributing factor: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/16...
EDIT: those countries are getting better, but still...
That's what you get when you combine oil riches, Nordic model and coastline designed by Slartibartfast.
How does the coastline help? I've never heard this explanation before.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Janteloven is more about not assuming you are better than others. Being happy is perfectly compatible with that.
Starting a business and attempting to make millions, however, is not. A colleague of mine has a childhood friend who owns a grocery store. Sensing that business was good, he opened a second grocery store in a neighboring town. It went great until the rest of the town knew he owned two stores -- then they started boycotting the second store, which was quickly forced to close its doors. Janteloven, the climate and the…
I suspect something else was going on with your friends second store, since successful stores growing into chains is a pretty common. Did people officially boycott the store or is it just his interpretation of events?
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As someone living in Norway who has been quite interested in the subject and read a lot about it. My understanding is that nordic countries tend to come at the top, not because people are jumping around with joy in the streets. More likely to find that in South America or Africa. Nordic happiness is a mild happiness. It is really about having few people very dissatisfied with life rather than having super happy peopl…
Very true. I bet Scandinavia ranks highest in 'average happiness', but much lower in 'peak happiness', if that makes sense. There is a kind of oppressive atmosphere here where you are expected to subdue yourself, like it is a sin to stick out in a positive way (how dare you make the rest of us feel worse off with your success).
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I am an Indian who have lived for a while in NZ. Please do not chug on this Kool-Aid that NZ is not corrupt. Part of the reason why real estate in Auckland is overpriced is because the government deliberately does not formulate a legislation that forbids non-residents from buying up property. Please petition for this reasonable legislation. Who does the current policy enrich? It is your country. I think you should fi…
Oh, as a Canadian I fully agree, the exact same thing happening to you is happening to us as well. In Vancouver, upper class neighborhoods hollowed out by empty unmaintained multi-million dollar homes, condo towers pitch black at night, high end sports cars with N (new driver) stickers, horrendous traffic as (speculation) it seems people can buy a driver's license without first learning how to drive, etc. Popular opi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am an Indian who have lived for a while in NZ. Please do not chug on this Kool-Aid that NZ is not corrupt. Part of the reason why real estate in Auckland is overpriced is because the government deliberately does not formulate a legislation that forbids non-residents from buying up property. Please petition for this reasonable legislation. Who does the current policy enrich? It is your country. I think you should fi…
>the government deliberately does not formulate a legislation that forbids non-residents from buying up property. This is not even remotely corruption. I'd be interested in a city in a first world country that that actually downright forbids non-residents/foreigners from buying property. I very much doubt one exists.
Most of the time, people that have more freedom are less happy. I remember stories I heard about people moving from Soviet Russia to the United States back in the early 80s. They were unhappy and stressed out because in the soviet union, they were assigned a job and the government took care of them. Here in the United States, you had to fend for yourself. Freedom isn't always pleasant and happy, but it's better for t…
The world's post-industrial history is extremely short, and everything we've seen thus far is some kind of historical accident. Other futures are always possible.
One of the most depressing things I ever read is about Norwegians not having good ideas for spending their money, so the tend to opt for buying second and third holiday homes. I mean I am sure having holiday homes provides a certain degree of happiness, it was just the mundaneness and banality of the human condition that depressed me about it.
1. Norway 146. Yemen 2. Denmark 147. South Sudan 3. Iceland 148. Liberia 4. Switzerland 149. Guinea 5. Finland 150. Togo 6. Netherlands 151. Rwanda 7. Canada 152. Syria 8. New Zealand 153. Tanzania 9. Australia 154. Burundi 10. Sweden Will be interesting to see how spots 7, 8, 9 hold up going forward as many/most middle class people in these 3 countries increasingly find they cannot afford even a very modest home wit…
I am an Indian who have lived for a while in NZ. Please do not chug on this Kool-Aid that NZ is not corrupt. Part of the reason why real estate in Auckland is overpriced is because the government deliberately does not formulate a legislation that forbids non-residents from buying up property. Please petition for this reasonable legislation. Who does the current policy enrich? It is your country. I think you should fi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, as a Canadian I fully agree, the exact same thing happening to you is happening to us as well. In Vancouver, upper class neighborhoods hollowed out by empty unmaintained multi-million dollar homes, condo towers pitch black at night, high end sports cars with N (new driver) stickers, horrendous traffic as (speculation) it seems people can buy a driver's license without first learning how to drive, etc. Popular opi…
Vancouver is enacting a tax on empty homes http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/city-of-vanco...