Happiness report: Norway is the happiest place on earth • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by thatcat » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:17 AM UTC

setrofim_ wrote: post #139

jernfrost wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. This just means that how happy a person feels correlates well with how happy others perceive them to be. This says nothing about whether their subjective feelings reflect objective reality. Research actually seems to sug…

>happiness is very subjective, and may infact have a strong genetic component.

I agree that happiness is subjective and personality trait expression may very well have a genetic component, but I wouldn't dismiss societal and environmental factors entirely.

For example, inequality and air pollution are also associated with unhappiness.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/income-inequality-increase... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130118125955.h...

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

#162

Post by synicalx » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:20 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #160

synicalx wrote: post #156

> It is your country. I think you should fight for it. Uh oh, those words are verboten on HN! You mustn't like your country nor should you ever do anything that benefits it because that's racist.

Please don't make things up about HN for rhetorical purposes. Also, please don't post unsubstantive comments. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13913656 and marked it off-topic.

So you're telling me there's absolutely no evidence of widespread anti-nationalist sentiment on this site? Completely unheard of?

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

#163

Post by taway_1212 » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 9:33 AM UTC

taway_1212 wrote: post #131

jernfrost wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Scandinavian countries have often been more welcome and generous to refugees. And they often get more rights with respect to citizenship and assistance in training and working. The big problem with Scandinavia for refugees is that despite generous welfare programs, there are very few low skilled jobs. Southern Europe is easier in the regard although they seem to often be more racist and give less assistance.…

> Brexit showed there is quite extreme xenophobia alive and well in Britain Xenophobia is irrational hatred towards foreigners, while Brexiters had very rational qualms about them (mainly about lowering wages for jobs).

I always wonder about people who downvote but don't care to (or can't) put their counterargument in words.

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

#164

Post by matt4077 » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 9:45 AM UTC

barking wrote: post #62

matt4077 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both may be the result of similar policies, i. e. rather generous benefits for people in need. For residents, it contributes to happiness to know that getting cancer would not just be life-threatening, but may also cost you your job, house, and savings. For refugees, Scandinavia usually puts them up in modest apartments, provides a stipend in cash that covers necessities, and has a lot of programs to get them into wo…

>Other countries put refugees into rather filthy mass shelters, with just rows and rows of a hundred cots to sleep and instead of cash there's catering bought for $1 per meal. Which countries do that?

Germany, in some jurisdictions to varying degrees. The shelters were/are mostly temporary because there just wasn't room for a million Syrians in 2015.

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

#165

Post by marvin » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 12:19 PM UTC

krystiangw wrote: post #116

Norway is great country to live. And IT jobs salaries are almost as good as in US ~ $100k https://jobsquery.it/jobs;page=1;tags=;sortBy=SALARY_DESC;qu...

Norwegian developer salaries are not nearly at US levels. Been improving the last few years though. In the biggest cities, they might be competitive with some large-ish cities in the US.

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

#166

Post by javier2 » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

sundvor wrote: post #34

nkrisc wrote: post #17

After visiting Norway in the summer, the only thing that would give me pause with regards to living there is the winter. I live at 41°N right now and I think winter has to much darkness. Imagining the opposite of the Norwegian summer I experienced is a bit much for me.

I left #1 for #9 closer to two decades ago. Personally I find the Australian society more open and inclusive, and less concerned with material wealth.

On a longer time-scale, I plan to do the same!

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

#167

Post by sundvor » Wed, Mar 22, 2017, 6:27 AM UTC

javier2 wrote: post #166

sundvor wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left #1 for #9 closer to two decades ago. Personally I find the Australian society more open and inclusive, and less concerned with material wealth.

On a longer time-scale, I plan to do the same!

Awesome, you'll like it here. :-)

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

#168

Post by darpa_escapee » Fri, Mar 24, 2017, 11:53 PM UTC

zdean wrote: post #147

darpa_escapee wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I gave it 4 days and I still think it's a rhetorical Trojan horse for white nationalism. I've quite literally never seen that argument trotted out in any other context.