禁漫天堂

@nz7521137 happiness! Such a loaded concept. What does it mean? I suppose it means different things to different people; and to others it means absolutely nothing. On the surface it would seem to our perception that a native Indian in the Amazon who has never been touched by our civilization is happy. To our perception that is. Perhaps if we asked him whether he is happy, perhaps he would not know what we mean. As if there are two ways to exist. Happy and unhappy with different degrees that is. My two cents is that we invented the concept 鈥渉appiness鈥� to be able to match聽 the expectations that we burden ourselves with with the cards we are dealt in life. Pure entitlement and delusional thinking for sure. If we lower our expectations maybe the word happiness would be irrelevant.

There is a scientific survey about the distribution of happiness worldwide and what affects it: The "World Happiness Report". It's newest issue is here:

My take in short:

• There is a correlation between happiness and GDP/person of a country (meaning people in richer countries are happier tan those in poorer), but it is weak - other factors than money seem to have stronger effects.
• But there is a stong correlation between happiness and relative wealth - people are happy if they have more than the society around them. As an extreme example, somebody with 鈧�500/month would be happy in Mali (where most people survive on far less), but unhappy in Europe (where this is below the poverty line). This remains true even if you correct for Purchasing Power (i.e. the fact that 1鈧� buy you less in Europe than in Mali).
• And then there are cultural and social factors - some societies seem to be constantly less happy than others (you mentioned Hungary vs. Portugal or Australia).

@beppi Thanks for the link to the interesting report.

When you compare the ranking in the report with your personal experience meeting/seeing people in the countries you know well, what is your impression?

@nz7521137 I tend to, if I have a choice, surround myself with happy people. So my observations are certainly not statistically valid.

@beppi That's fascinating. I never knew such a study existed. I look forward to spending some time reading it. Always interesting to see who and where are happiest and what factors ultimately contribute or detract from happiness. Cheers.