Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
This article was in the Daily Sun today (09-11-13): "Report: World slightly happier than it used to be"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
Happiest countries:
1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Switzerland
4. Netherlands
5. Sweden
6. Canada
17. United States
Seventeenth out of more than 150 countries isn't bad, but there's room for improvement. As far as I can tell, they didn't give any clue as to how they went about ranking so many countries. So it's not likely we would know what we need to do to bring about improvement.
1) What do you think we need, as a country, to do to be happier?
2) If they were to rank The Villages separately, where would we be on the list?
3) Do you think The Villages, and other retirement communities like ours, contributed much to our #17 standing?
Note: I have a feeling they used universal health care as part of their ranking system, so most likely this report is biased. And who knows in what other ways it might be biased.
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I have a niece and her husband who live in Sweden in a farmhouse. Very serene location.
Surrounded by just pasture type land. No close neighbors.
Both are very contented.......she is in management at I.K.E.A. He also has a good career..........they enjoy getting away into the wilderness camping and so on..........and they also enjoy ice fishing in the winter months.
Denmark is a short hop and skip from their location in southern Sweden. They can go to Renaissance Fairs, etc.
They also are able to travel all over Europe as easily as we are able to fly to Florida from Vermont.......
They have flown to the South Pole to see the penguins (to photograph them); they have traveled in Italy , etc.
I would say that people who live in homogenous type societies are happier than those who live in non homogenous societies. Basically, their outlooks on life, their customs, and so on and so forth...their cultural values, would be similar.......not taking into account generational differences which happen in all societies.
Sweden also is a socialist type country and even university is provided for (higher education).
Sweden was also "ahead" in giving dads paternity leave when a baby was born, etc.
However, it isn't always about medical care............as far as being happy, but that also is provided in Sweden.
I have a friend who was born in Switzerland.......she returns every now and then; however, she chose to raise her children in the U.S. The fact that Switzerland is a neutral country does permit its citizens to not worry about war so much.....at least their participation in it.
Ironically, her American raised daughter has chosen to raise her own family in The Netherlands, where her husband was born...........they also are content there; visited us last summer. She was raised in Vermont.
Vermont used to be a homogenous type state when we first arrived in 1970........however, it has a lot more diversity now.....especially up near the University of Vermont in Burlington on Lake Champlain......they actually have resettled various ethnic groups in Vermont via our U.S. Government resettlement programs.
But, I do recall the "old Vermont" and when it was a homogenous type society with salt of the earth dairy farmers, apple growers, villagers, towns folk whose ancestors had been born and raised here........life was simpler.
People were content with their simple lives based on the changing of the seasons.........once all of us "out of staters" came up wondering why we all couldn't get this or that product.........things began to change. The locals had made do or gone without. They knew how to survive off of their land.
They had simple tastes. I think that says a lot. Plus, they were all alike.
What is happiness? | This Emotional Life
From PBS.org Food for thought. Please click above hyperlink............