State Of Happiness

Next month, on the 20th of March, the day that since 2012 has been established as the International Day of Happiness, will see the release of the annual World Happiness Report. This post will examine why America has been gradually sliding down in the ranking since the report's inception, and why the Nordic countries are always placed at the top.

The happiness of people, their self-reported sense of well-being, depends on a range of individual circumstances, like income and health for example, but are also heavily influenced by a variety of measures of the social environment. People tend to be a lot happier if they have a social environment with people and institutions they can trust and count on, provides them with a sense of freedom to make key life decisions, allows them to be generous and also be on the receiving end of generosity. When we read last year's World Happiness Report we learn that the unhappiness caused by things like high income inequality and discrimination, can be offset for a great part by the strength and warmth of the general social fabric. This means that when you live in a country in which the citizenry can trust their government and institutions to reach out with a helping hand when needed, the happiness-reducing effects of income - and wealth gaps are greatly reduced. Yes, Finland has billionaires too, but it still ranks first for a third year in a row in the annual happiness index.

America on the other hand has lost places on this list: it ranked number 18 in 2020, far below its 11th place ranking in the first World Happiness Report. Americans are becoming increasingly less happy, and that's largely because of the constant deterioration of the social fabric and diminishing trust in the federal government and other institutions. All countries in the top 11 (I count number 11 because that's Canada on America's northern border) have in common that they all have some form of socialized health care that's free at the point of service. And 8 of these countries provide their citizens with free higher education as well. And none of them spend the lion share of their budgets on the production and dissemination of killing machines... Average American citizens have been taught that they're alone on this planet, they shouldn't expect or want from their leaders any kind of help or assistance. They should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and never ask what their country can do for them, but only what they can do for their country. And if they can't do anything for their country, if they can't meaningfully contribute to the nation's GDP, they're rightfully looked down upon and made to feel guilty for their own misfortune. American society is the antithesis of the kind of social environment that breeds happy people.

Now, you all know what's responsible for the ongoing disintegration of America's social fabric, but I'll say it just in case: it's late stage capitalism with its hyper-individualism, in a country where people who fight for a living minimum wage or healthcare for all are derided as socialist scum, and where progressive taxation is vilified as theft. America's main institution, its federal government, does nothing for the American people and everything for America's wealthiest corporations and individuals; it's the best democracy money can buy. Americans can't trust their government and they can't trust each other because their leaders have an invested interest to pit them against each other. The widespread practice of lobbying is nothing else than legalized bribery, as is the practice of large campaign donations. The state rightfully is the enemy in the eyes of an ever growing number of Americans, but that's only because the state is bought and paid for by the ultra-wealthy who don't want Americans to have nice things like healthcare and free education. Finland, Denmark, Canada and other countries at the top of the world happiness index prove that America, still the world's wealthiest country, could also be the happiest country in the world. If only they really had a government by the people and for the people, if only the state wasn't their enemy...

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