The Happiest Countries in the World

[Player Twelve]

who will be too blame?

The politicians who have been blind to reality and imported people who can't contribute.

[Spectral]

I mean, you can still make the right decisions, but its not going to work out every time. I think its a key difference between Americans and Scandinavians. Caring for the rest of your "tribe".

I think your core observation is basically correct here. One big difference (I think - epistemic status is uncertain) would be that the American tribe isn't anywhere near as much of a tribe as Norway or Sweden. I think this is a result of three large differences:
1) Nation scope - I don't just mean population, but physical size and governmental differences across states. It's hard to convince a New Yorker that they're basically the same tribe as Texans.
2) Diversity - The ethnic diversity in the United States is extreme, which there's some decent evidence evidence diminishing social cohesion.
3) Selectively sampled population - due to the nature of people that would make a massive life change and migrate halfway around the world, combined with American cultural norms, there's just more emphasis on pride in personal independence. I frankly think they're pretty silly about it, but it has its upsides.

I think most american states that had most Germanic people immigrate too, are the happiest ones?

Yeah. They have some other interesting commonalities with Northern Europe as well - they're our coldest states, have the strongest histories of support for democratic socialism, and still maintain stronger labor activist groups than the majority of states. Americans of Northern European descent are pretty similar to actual Northern Europeans in my experience.

[Jurassic]

What do you know the top 10 are practically all democratic socialist, socialism/capitalism hybrids, or capitalist with heavy socialistic regulation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/norway-...untry-of-2017/

Why am I not surprised...

EDIT: Oh damn 1,500 posts.

You are bad at correlation, maybe it is because the populations are largely homogeneous.

[Theinquisition]

I mean...Blame the idiots in charge, blame the academics that say that Swedes have no inherent culture, and should be ashamed that they are white.

when will the Vikings return?

[Spectral]

Summary : There is a strong correlation between proportion of a country that is atheist/agnostic and the happiness index of the country.

Which direction do you think the causality runs in?

Not intended to be snark or a gotcha - I don't know the answer and don't really have a great hypothesis.

[Theinquisition]

I think your core observation is basically correct here. One big difference (I think - epistemic status is uncertain) would be that the American tribe isn't anywhere near as much of a tribe as Norway or Sweden. I think this is a result of three large differences:
1) Nation scope - I don't just mean population, but physical size and governmental differences across states. It's hard to convince a New Yorker that they're basically the same tribe as Texans.
2) Diversity - The ethnic diversity in the United States is extreme, which there's some decent evidence evidence diminishing social cohesion.
3) Selectively sampled population - due to the nature of people that would make a massive life change and migrate halfway around the world, combined with American cultural norms, there's just more emphasis on pride in personal independence. I frankly think they're pretty silly about it, but it has its upsides.

Yeah. They have some other interesting commonalities with Northern Europe as well - they're our coldest states, have the strongest histories of support for democratic socialism, and still maintain stronger labor activist groups than the majority of states. Americans of Northern European descent are pretty similar to actual Northern Europeans in my experience.

Outside of some basics like language and values, most Americans have nothing in common.

[Player Twelve]

You are bad at correlation, maybe it is because the populations are largely homogeneous.

No, at least 30% in Sweden are not ethnic Swedes, so it's not homogeneous.

[Deleted]

So you pay 282k DKK a year in taxes.
With a standard deduction of taxes every month at 4500 (54k a year).
You are looking at a monthly income of 40220 DKK or 6419 us$ (before taxes

Either you are in a high position or you are talking out of your arse.
Anyhow your yearly paycheck is 482640 DKK or 77025 us$

If we say you work a standard 38 hour week you are earning 252 DKK/hour or 40 us$/hour. That is more than a doctor with the 2nd highest education reached.
A pilot has roughly 300000 DKK in years pay.

A CEO Salery is average 66000 DKK/month

Masters degree in computer science. I know you cant see everything from jobindex, but heres something to give you an idea.

https://www.jobindex.dk/tjek-din-loen/datalog

[Strawberry]

The reason why people are happy in Sweden?

Hmmm, let's see, what makes me happy in Sweden.
I get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year (each vacation day is actually paid more than a normal work day), I earn more than people in most EU countries. As a middle class citizen I can still afford luxury cars. The food and especially meat is high quality (although expensive but that's what you have to pay for HQ), the air is extremely high quality.
The weather is tolerable, summers in Sweden are actually fantastic, when it's sunny which is not often. But it's not really cold during the winter. Maybe -10-15C where I live (just south of Stockholm). The best thing about the weather in Sweden is that there's no huge variation in temperature. Some south European countries have shorter but much colder winters, yet they are extremely hot during the summer. So the temperatures can range from -25C to +40C. Where I live is about -10C to +25C.

I can understand Norway is so high up, they have insane pay and the country is truly beautiful.

Still I'd rather earn half my paycheck and live in Thailand or something than here. Social life in Sweden is dull as well as the nature. There's nothing to see here.

[Spectral]

Outside of some basics like language and values, most Americans have nothing in common.

Yeah, and it feels like it's gotten more noticeable as some of the few commonalities like having the same treasured values have drifted apart. It wasn't that long ago when basically everyone agreed that free speech was a core right and that Thomas Jefferson was someone worth celebrating.

[schwarzkopf]

Which direction do you think the causality runs in?

It isn't A→B causality, rather generally accepted to be C→A and C→B causality (intellect/education breads both atheism and happiness). Can't go into detail on the justification of this due to limits on what can be discussed in these forums.

[Blade Wolf]

What makes me happy about living in Sweden is the healthcare. I'd either be fucking dead or poor as fuck in countries that don't have the same healthcare system like we do.

[Theinquisition]

Yeah, and it feels like it's gotten more noticeable as some of the few commonalities like having the same treasured values have drifted apart. It wasn't that long ago when basically everyone agreed that free speech was a core right and that Thomas Jefferson was someone worth celebrating.

OH I agree whole heartedly.

It's part of the reason I feel so strongly against things like burning the flag, and kneeling during the Anthem. Sure, it's peoples freedom of speech, I get that and understand that. At the same time, we have so very few national traditions that really uify us as Americans.

At least before we could say, "hey you know what, your white, im black, your a guy im a girl, your republican and I'm a democrat....but you know what at the end of the day we can both respect the flag and recognize that we are both also Americans".

Hell, just having any type of uniting tradition as viewed as nationalistic now, nationalism isn't always a bad thing. Ghandi was a nationalist, so was Churchill and Roosevelt.

- - - Updated - - -

It isn't A→B causality, rather generally accepted to be C→A and C→B causality (intellect/education breads both atheism and happiness). Can't go into detail on the justification of this due to limits on what can be discussed in these forums.

Hmmph, interesting analysis. Although, im met some real unhappy atheists and Educated religious folks. I think that generalization is painting with too broad a brush

[Z-Man]

Outside of some basics like language and values, most Americans have nothing in common.

I'm ready to cross values off the list. I know too many people that wouldn't hesitate if given a chance to butcher half their neighborhood.

[Levelfive]

Kind of wondering how the Swedish Welfare system will adapt to the hordes of uneducated, culturally backwards migrants over the next 20 years.

Probably all Americans.

[oxymoronic]

Shit weather as in tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes etc? :P

none of that in las vegas

educate yourself boy

[Theinquisition]

I'm ready to cross values off the list. I know too many people that wouldn't hesitate if given a chance to butcher half their neighborhood.

well, I was being pretty generous. I would *like* to think that as a whole we Americans share, at a minimum, Judeo-Christian values.

That's being generous though.

- - - Updated - - -

Probably all Americans.

What a compelling argument, please tell me more.

[epLe]

Norway just is that great

Pretty much everything in Sweden has to be "lagom", which is why they are on other end of that list.

[Rasulis]

none of that in las vegas

educate yourself boy

Cough!

Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S. (after Alaska and California); it has been estimated by the USGS that over the next 50 years there is a 10–20% chance of a M6.0 or greater earthquake occurring within 30 miles of Las Vegas.

The valley itself is an active earthquake zone crossed by multiple fault and thrust lines. These include the 20-mile long Frenchman Mountain Fault capable of a magnitude 7 event, Whitney Mesa Fault, Cashman Fault, Valley View Fault, Decatur Fault, Eglington Fault and the West Charleston Fault.

Here is a good paper on site response study for the Las Vegas Basin.

https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/...t=fac_articles

In summary, the current design standard may not be sufficient for long-period structures (defined as period larger than 1 second) which generally applies to high-rise buildings.

[Deleted]

What do you know the top 10 are practically all democratic socialist, socialism/capitalism hybrids, or capitalist with heavy socialistic regulation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/norway-...untry-of-2017/

Why am I not surprised...

EDIT: Oh damn 1,500 posts.

You are making a mistake here. These countries are all built capitalist for CENTURIES if not longer. Most of these stopped being capitalist and started being a lot more socialist due to all the capital generated. You can just look at how a country is today, but there's a lot more history as to why they turned out to be the countries that they are today.

So before you are screaming everyone should turn democrat in order to be happy and to succeed as a country, think back to the ''racist'', ''oppressive'' and ''mysogynistic'' facts which brought us this far. Because it's going down REALLY fast.

Oh and Sweden, enjoy your stay in the top 10. Please ignore the fact that your country is in a continually degrading state, as a lot of these people living in the country are still suggesting.