Speaking of freedom, the World Happiness Report issued by independent researchers last month finds Denmark is the happiest country on the planet. Canada reaches sixth in a top ten filled with countries with national health care of some sort. The United States ranks 17th. We beat France, but that's what they get for giving us Camus and Sartre.
Here are the top 30:
Why is Denmark happier than the United States? It's in part due to a pro-family, pro-health, community-oriented, dare I say socialist, mindset:
While American women scrape by with an average maternal leave of 10.3 weeks, Danish families receive a total of 52 weeks of parental leave. Mothers are able to take 18 weeks and fathers receive their own dedicated 2 weeks at up to 100 percent salary. The rest of the paid time off is up to the family to use as they see fit.
...Danish citizens expect and receive health care as a basic right. But what's more, they know how to effectively use their health systems. Danish people are in touch with their primary care physician an average of nearly seven times per year, according to a 2012 survey of family medicine in the country. And that means they have a single advocate who helps them navigate more complicated care.
...Danes don't prioritize social security and safety simply so they can receive benefits; there's a real sense of collective responsibility and belonging. And this civic duty -- combined with the economic security and work-life balance to support it -- results in a high rate of volunteerism ["Denmark Is Considered the Happiest Country. You'll Never Guess Why," Huffington Post, 2013.10.22].
Real practical respect for families, better health care, shared responsibility: gee, it really does take a village to secure liberty and prosperity. Danes also vote more and bike more than we do. Ah, sweet happiness!
The ultimate measure of everything is not happiness.
Note their health care thingy.
Danes trust their government.
Americans do not.
Pity.
Stress-Disease Connection, Addiction and the Destruction of American Childhood
http://www.democracynow.org/appearances/dr_gabor_mat
So what do you propose as the ultimate measure Michael? I.E., what measure would make you "happy"?
Serving others.
But what about the business community, you know, the ones who like to hire at minimum wage without benefits, don't you think they are more happy in America than Denmark?
Perhaps population size has something to do with happiness. With the exception of Mexico, the countries happier than the U.S. all have significantly less population than the U.S., and are predominately one race or religion. Perhaps the idea of the United States becoming more than one nation is worth looking at. It is also interesting that the happiest nation closest to the U.S. in population has a great number of its citizens trying to live a country that is less happy than they are. Maybe there is a correlation between race, religion, and population size. Gonna have to read the whole report before I form an opinion.
Funny, Cory. "Camus and Sartre."
Hahahaha!
25% VAT and a 42% minimum income tax-I'm sure they're practically giddy!
I have known about this for a few years now. A few years ago I had a cousin that attended a semester of college in London and one night he got a really bad stomach ache, so his room mates took him to the ER. His major concern was what it would cost and they told him not to worry about it. He had two doctors working over him and he never received a bill, nor did his parents or their insurance company. These countries pay more taxes, but then on the other hand, they don't have to worry about health care, higher education, and whatever else.
Joan, for me that's the deal. I'll pay taxes as long as the people get some good services for the money.
Cranky, what Joan and Deb are saying answers your statement very directly. The whole idea of the Denmark story is that their sense of commitment to each other makes them happier. They serve others (as Michael wants) and themselves by cooperating via taxes and government to provide better services for everyone.
Joseph, the cultural homogeneity point is worth investigating. But suppose we found a connection between homogeneity and happiness: what would we do with that information? Would we dare adopt policies to wipe out cultural diversity? Or would that simply be a fact that we cannot and should not do much about, like the weather or the mountains?
I'm not sure I'd worry much about population size. The fact that every country above us on the list has smaller population only reflects the fact that there are only two countries out of about 200 (156 covered in this survey) that have more people than the U.S. The authors themselves looked for a population-happiness correlation and found none (see p. 13 of their report).
The factors that the authors find explain the most variance in happiness scores (Figure 2.1, p. 21) are household income, perceptions of corruption, donations/generosity, freedom to make life choices, and social support.
I can see some intuitive sense to the idea that a less-crowded country might be happier... but that would be a population density question. Russia has a large population, but even larger space, and they're #68. So there may be a sweet spot: it's nice not to live in an overcrowded city (though note, again, the top scorers are more urbanized that low scorers, aren't they?), but you still need a critical mass of neighbors around to provide social support and income opportunities.
It just makes sense when you consider the economic stressors that the US has when it comes to not being able to afford health insurance, or having health insurance and getting hit with a huge medical bill that your insurance won't pay for. 80/20 insurance still bankrupts a lot of people. It's a racket, people. The pharmaceutical industry is the same.
I love it. People defining, analyzing, and quantifying (even graphing!) other people's happiness.
Oh well. It's fun ...
Nations with a single payer health care system are also less happy than we are, including the UK. Still think is got more to do with cultural homogeneity than anything else.
"Nations with a single payer health care system are also less happy than we are, including the UK"
So if this true Joseph then there must be a loud clamor calling for a system like ours? Which means there are stories about this. Could you find one for me?
Joseph, all of the other countries listed higher than the US in the graph HAVE a single payer healthcare system.
As do many ranked lower, your point being?