United States Conspicuously Absent from List of Happiest Countries

[progressoid]

US doesn't make cut for happiest nations list

24/7 Wall St. analyzed the new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Better Life Index to objectively determine the happiest countries in the world. The Index is based on 11 measurements of quality of life including housing, income, jobs, community, education, the environment, health, work-life balance, and life satisfaction. We made “life satisfaction” the cornerstone of our index because it is as good a proxy for “happiness” as the survey provides. We then compared “life satisfaction” scores to the other measurements to find those economic and socio-political realities that had the highest and lowest correlation to happiness.

The happiest people in the developed world get loads of social services without having to work too hard. Having abundant natural resources, a thriving services sector and a fairly homogeneous population helps as well. The OECD study no doubt would have had different results had it included politically unstable countries in the Middle East or large emerging economies where political unrest threatens to bubble over such as China.

24/7 Wall St. also looked at one critical factor that the OECD study overlooked — economic stability. Our measure of this was total national debt as a percent of GDP. The figure helps determine a country's ability to maintain present tax levels and social services. Odds are that countries with high debt-to-GDP ratios are more likely to need austerity policies to reign-in their government spending. Otherwise, their debt costs will soar.
...


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43287918/

The top ten list as compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, in reverse order, is:

10. Austria
9. Israel
8. Finland
7. Switzerland
6. Sweden
5. The Netherlands
4. Australia
3. Norway
2. Canada
1. Denmark

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Here in the U.S. even the rich aren't happy.

Because they don't own it all yet.

[JHB]

2. Love the "austerity policies to reign-in their government spending" part...

Maybe the problem is in all those wasteful tax breaks and welfare-for-the-wealthy.

[progressoid]

5. Also note that most of those countries have high tax rates

and small military budgets.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. You can use your own weighting of 11 measures to produce your own ranking

Interactive page here: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org

[elocs]

4. I read this here last Monday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1236015

[KansDem]

6. Hey! This pisses me off!

:grr:

[eppur_se_muova]

7. How many countries do we have to bomb before we're happy? nt

[Kaleko]

9. LOL. Great reply.

[Rex]

8. Why would we be happy!? We eat shit and are told to like it or

die. Anyone that has a half decent job in America, is one lucky SOB!

[Vehl]

10. American Exceptionalism! Hell yeah!

with Hundreds of Billions spent on unwanted wars...Even more spent on useless tax cuts and "subsidies" to Big corps...stupid healthcare system draining billions..we are exceptional!