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World Happiness Report 2026

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Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#81

Post by bombcar »

scythe wrote: post #60
alstonite wrote: post #2

It’s interesting to see a country’s internal rank of its own happiness against how I would rank them using my worldview. Israel for example seems like a place that would be fairly unhappy right now given world events, but they rank quite highly. Saudi Arabia also sticks out as unexpected. It seems in the media I hear about their government being quite oppressive (especially against women), so seeing them just above t…

Another big surprise is Mexico. It seems like every day there's another gory story about a bunch of people disappearing or getting shot in a gang war. But they're the second-highest ranked in North America at #12, behind only Costa Rica. Israel I think is similar to Costa Rica in that whatever problems Israelis have, they look around at their neighbors and realize how much worse it could be.

Maybe they're ranking themselves so high because they're not in the "bunch of people gorily disappeared."

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#82

Post by bombcar »

9rx wrote: post #54
throw0101d wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people with difficult housing affordability and general high cost of living is dragging down the score. Boomers that own their homes are more satisfied: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaUBC22o4&t=4m13s

Except the biggest drop was among teenage girls. Housing affordability and cost of living isn't usually yet a concern to most teenagers, and to the extent that it is a concern, it is equally a concern to teenage boys who haven't felt the same decline in happiness.

I suspect you're right, in general, but teenage girls may also be more susceptible to "future worry" than the boys are.

Tell the girls that housing will be unobtainable and they start worrying; tell the boys and they laugh. Not saying it's the case (and it's likely that the cause is more social than financial) but it could be.

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#83

Post by card_zero »

mazsa wrote: post #72
Archit3ch wrote: post #67

As a foreigner living in Finland, people here don't necessarily have more, but they behave like the proverbial fisherman. An ambitious CEO moves to a small coastal town, living right on the beach to "optimize his lifestyle." Every evening, he sees a local fisherman sitting on his deck, playing guitar and watching the sunset with his family. After a week, the CEO approaches the fisherman and says, "You know, if you sp…

"14 1 Now, there was a certain Cineas, a man of Thessaly, with a reputation for great wisdom, who had been a pupil of Demosthenes the orator, and was quite the only public speaker of his day who was thought to remind his hearers, as a statue might, of that great orator's power and ability. Associating p387 himself with Pyrrhus, and sent by him as ambassador to the cities, he confirmed the saying of Euripides, to wit,…

OK, but now that we're in this comfortable position that puts us at liberty to chat with friends and family and drink huge amounts of booze on a beach, what is it all for? What are we going to do next? Invade Italy maybe for instance?

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#84

Post by [deleted] »

Archit3ch wrote: post #67

As a foreigner living in Finland, people here don't necessarily have more, but they behave like the proverbial fisherman. An ambitious CEO moves to a small coastal town, living right on the beach to "optimize his lifestyle." Every evening, he sees a local fisherman sitting on his deck, playing guitar and watching the sunset with his family. After a week, the CEO approaches the fisherman and says, "You know, if you sp…

[deleted]

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#85

Post by [deleted] »

card_zero wrote: post #83
mazsa wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"14 1 Now, there was a certain Cineas, a man of Thessaly, with a reputation for great wisdom, who had been a pupil of Demosthenes the orator, and was quite the only public speaker of his day who was thought to remind his hearers, as a statue might, of that great orator's power and ability. Associating p387 himself with Pyrrhus, and sent by him as ambassador to the cities, he confirmed the saying of Euripides, to wit,…

OK, but now that we're in this comfortable position that puts us at liberty to chat with friends and family and drink huge amounts of booze on a beach, what is it all for? What are we going to do next? Invade Italy maybe for instance?

[deleted]

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#86

Post by magic_hamster »

10xDev wrote: post #62
alstonite wrote: post #2

It’s interesting to see a country’s internal rank of its own happiness against how I would rank them using my worldview. Israel for example seems like a place that would be fairly unhappy right now given world events, but they rank quite highly. Saudi Arabia also sticks out as unexpected. It seems in the media I hear about their government being quite oppressive (especially against women), so seeing them just above t…

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Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#87

Post by magic_hamster »

10xDev wrote: post #63
deadbabe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Israel they use happiness as a rebellion. You try to kill them, you say what you want, but they don’t care, they stay happy. It fuels their enemy’s rage.

No they just call you an antisemite and ask America to bomb you.

Not really? The current conflict with Iran is entirely a joint venture where Israel is taking on a significant portion. In previous conflicts the US was marginally involved and even pushed Israel to stop fighting entirely. I don't think you have a good grasp on these events.

Re: World Happiness Report 2026

#88

Post by magic_hamster »

myth_drannon wrote: post #13
alstonite wrote: post #2

It’s interesting to see a country’s internal rank of its own happiness against how I would rank them using my worldview. Israel for example seems like a place that would be fairly unhappy right now given world events, but they rank quite highly. Saudi Arabia also sticks out as unexpected. It seems in the media I hear about their government being quite oppressive (especially against women), so seeing them just above t…

It had a huge drop in positive emotions due to the war with Gaza in 2023. Actually, negative emotions were higher than positive which is sad and expected. But the index includes many metrics that don't change rapidly like GDP, life expactancy.. so any short conflict will not have outsized effect.

There might have been a huge drop due to the atrocities on October 7th which caused the Gaza war.
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