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Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

bbc.com

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Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#141

Post by passivepinetree »

jernfrost wrote: post #63
mi_noi_noi wrote: post #12

I am Norwegian and wonder how much of this is cultural. Most people here know that the rest of the world has much lower living standards. So for many it is perhaps rude or shameful to claim to be unhappy or dissatisfied. I know it says "subjective happiness" in the report, but I still suspect it might be an influence.

1) Happiness is not as subjective as people think. Research suggest that what people state about their own happiness correlates very well with how friends and colleagues would describe a person as. 2) Having lived abroad extensively and traveled around many places keenly trying to observe these things I'd say Norwegian happiness is real. But we have a tendency in Norway to take every good thing for granted and compla…

Do you have a source for any of these assertions (especially number 1) or are they all anecdotal?

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#143

Post by tankenmate »

mistermann wrote: post #65
charlesdm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corruption does come in all shapes and sizes, but what you just described doesn't sound like corruption to me. Selling off properties to foreign owners isn't necessarily bad policy (it can bring in foreign capital, that is then transferred to a local owner or resident)

When it gets to the point where locals can't afford to place to live, what would be the correct word to use?

Homelessness? Economically displaced person?

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#144

Post by edblarney »

jernfrost wrote: post #63
mi_noi_noi wrote: post #12

I am Norwegian and wonder how much of this is cultural. Most people here know that the rest of the world has much lower living standards. So for many it is perhaps rude or shameful to claim to be unhappy or dissatisfied. I know it says "subjective happiness" in the report, but I still suspect it might be an influence.

1) Happiness is not as subjective as people think. Research suggest that what people state about their own happiness correlates very well with how friends and colleagues would describe a person as. 2) Having lived abroad extensively and traveled around many places keenly trying to observe these things I'd say Norwegian happiness is real. But we have a tendency in Norway to take every good thing for granted and compla…

You know when a startup has money, everything is happy.

When they don't, it's terrible.

Norway has tons of extra Oil money. The sense of security that comes from that should not be ignored.

Even aside from the emotion - when there's 'extra cash' to pay for all the little stuff, it just makes life easier all around.

I don't think we can ignore the big Oil elephant in the room.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#145

Post by marvin »

olavk wrote: post #103
marvin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 think you misunderstand Janteloven. Scandinavian countries are capitalist societies (even if Americans believe the health care and high tax makes us socialist) and prosperity and success based on hard work or talent is generally appreciated - as long as you "keep both feet on the ground" which means don't act if you are "better than other people" and pay your tax. I suspect something else was going on with your fri…

People in town were literally talking to each other saying it's not right that one guy owns two stores and makes so much money, encouraging each other to shop elsewhere. This was in Ørsta in Sunnmøre.

Obviously there is some geographic and socio-cultural variation; you wouldn't see the same degree of skepticism among most people in the biggest cities, but I am pretty confident I haven't misunderstood what Janteloven says. It's not a positive thing, and not conductive to an environment of high performance.

Granted, things might be better now than when I went to public school 15 years ago, but back then this attitude was practically institutionalized. I eventually went to private school after 3 years of being forced to sit through science classes of stuff I already knew, that were regardless torpedoed by uncontrollable classroom clowns. In private school, we had "choose your level" classes, and things improved. Many friends in university had similar experiences.

It was quite a surprise to hear of high schools in the US that actually cultivated students who wanted to learn more than the minimum.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#146

Post by edblarney »

fergie wrote: post #101
zdean wrote: post #58

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...

Other people have mentioned Japan, but you could look at basically any eastern european state to see lots of ethnically pure, yet miserable populations. EDIT: those countries are getting better, but still...

"eastern european state to see lots of ethnically pure, yet miserable populations."

True - but you also have nearly 70 years of ruthless, totalitarian oppression. What the Soviets did was leave people very cynical. It's changing though. Remains to be seen I guess.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#147

Post by zdean »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #113
zdean wrote: post #58

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...

Why is this considered a reasonable factor that's often brought up in discussions rather than other somewhat unique aspects of their government and society?

Because making it possible for ethnically/racially/culturally diverse groups to live happily together is and has historically been a major challenge. So a country that has immigration policies that promote homogeneity will avoid many of those challenges. It's certainly not the only factor...but I can't imagine that it doesn't play a major role.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#148

Post by zdean »

taway_1212 wrote: post #121
fergie wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people have mentioned Japan, but you could look at basically any eastern european state to see lots of ethnically pure, yet miserable populations. EDIT: those countries are getting better, but still...

Most of them are recovering from communism, and cleaning up the economic and social damage will take a long time.

That. And not to forget that many of the countries that are left over are the failed attempt to have different ethnic/cultural groups exist under one umbrella (USSR, Czechoslovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia)...not unlike the pressure in places like Iraq, Syria, etc that we see today.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#149

Post by 1123581321 »

j2bax wrote: post #132
colmvp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At times, I think social media helps perpetuate this unhappiness, especially when we have a tendency to only showcase the best in public. Getting married. Having a kid. Happy moments. Vacations. Career achievements. Keeping up with the Joneses has been a term for over a 100 years. Fantastic events are wonderful to see in small doses, but when it's a constant stream of oneupsmanship of who is doing better than others,…

It's incredibly telling when you know people really well that project a model of perfection on Facebook/Instagram whose real life/attitude is an entirely different story. I can't understand how these people justify their untruthful social projection when they know plenty of people that see both sides. The best (maybe worst?) part is all the people that don't know them locally/currently who provide endless gobs of aff…

Most people aren't intentionally misleading. It is natural to share happy photos, announce births etc. The problem is due to a) it being unnatural to publicly brag about financial problems, divorce, etc, and b) the sheer number of Facebook friends making the same sort of milestone posts, combined with Internet time replacing in-person time where more topics are discussed, resulting in a perception of being surrounded by non-stop happiness.

Re: Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth

#150

Post by cies »

M_Grey wrote: post #119
cies wrote: post #23

Of course the outcomes of this kind of research are largely dependent on way it is designed. There is a similar study that finds Latin American countries to be among the happiest. Discussed here: http://www.livescience.com/50209-happiest-countries-latin-am...

IIRC there was a similar study about six or seven years ago that found Nigerians were the most contented. Such rigor!

"Glad I speak to you! I'm doing super, and in fact I'm delighted to let you know that I have just inherited 500.000 USD from my grandfather. Now if you could help me transfer this fortune out of the country, I can share a good part of it with you."
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