Eric Weiner has travelled the world to make an
analysis of the most ‘happy’ and most ‘unhappy’ countries and see what the
backgrounds for a nations happiness are.
And he came up with one very interesting book: The
Geography of Bliss. Here the Amazon link.
Here is a brief summary of his research:
‘Extroverts are happier than introverts;
optimists are happier than pessimists; married people are happier than singles,
though people with children are no happier than childless couples; Republicans
are happier than Democrats; people who attend religious services are happier
than those who do not; people with college degrees are happier than those
without, though people with advanced degrees are less happy than those with
just a BA; people with an active sex life are happier than those without; women
and men are equally happy, though women have a wider emotional range; having an
affair will make you happy but will not compensate for the massive loss of
happiness that you will incur when your spouse finds out and leaves you; people
are least happy when they’re commuting to work; busy people are happier than
those with too little to do; wealthy people are happier than poor ones, but
only slightly.’
It is extremely hard to figure out why people
living in certain places are happier then others, because the reasons for our
happiness are not linked to the economic situation or our income; rich country
does not equal happy inhabitants and vice versa.
‘The happiest places, Eric Weiner explains,
don’t necessarily fit our preconceived notions. Some of the happiest countries in the world— Iceland and Denmark, for
instance— are homogeneous, shattering the American belief that there is
strength, and happiness, in diversity. One finding, which Veenhoven
just uncovered, has made him very unpopular with his fellow sociologists. He
found that income distribution
does not predict happiness. Countries with wide gaps between the rich and poor
are no less happy than countries where the wealth is distributed more equally. Sometimes,
they are happier…
Many of the world’s happiest countries also have high suicide rates. People who attend religious services report being happier than
those who do not, but the world’s happiest nations are secular. The United States, the richest, most powerful country in the world, is no happiness
superpower. Many other nations are happier than we are.’
Iceland is the perfect example of how much
having friends around counts for your happiness:
‘On a practical level, Iceland’s smallness
means that parents needn’t bother with that old bromide about not talking to
strangers. There are no strangers in Iceland. People are constantly running into friends and acquaintances. It’s
not unusual for people to show up thirty minutes late for work because en route
they encountered a parade of friends. This is a perfectly valid excuse, by the
way, for being late. The Icelandic equivalent of traffic was hell.’
But the small
population in Iceland has its disadvantages as well:
‘Geneticists have
found that everyone in the country is related to everyone else, going back
seven or eight generations. Icelanders can go to a website and find out how
closely they are related to a colleague, a friend— or that cutie they
slept with last night. One woman told me how unnerving this can be. “You’ve slept with this guy
you’ve just met and then the next day you’re at a family reunion, and there he
is in the corner eating smoked fish. You’re like—‘ Oh, my God, I just slept
with my second cousin.’
The most interested
country in its citizens’ happiness is…Bhutan! They even have a Gross National
Product for a Gross National Happiness scale. Progress measured by happiness,
and not by money – an approach that is very far from our consumer society
‘In a nutshell, Gross National Happiness seeks to measure a nation’s progress not by its
balance sheet but rather by the happiness— or unhappiness— of its people. It’s
a concept that represents a profound shift from how we think about money and
satisfaction and the obligation of a government to its people.’
See his opinion on America:
‘America’s place on the happiness spectrum is
not as high as you might think, given our superpower status. We are not, by any
measure, the happiest nation on earth. One study, by Adrian White at the University of Leicester in Britain,
ranked the United States as the world’s twenty-third happiest nation,
behind countries such as Costa Rica, Malta, and Malaysia. True, most Americans—
84 percent, according to one study— describe themselves as either “very” or
“pretty” happy, but it’s safe to
say that the United States is not as happy as it is wealthy.’
And which place is
the unhappiest place on the planet, according to his study? Moldova!
See why:
‘Many countries are poorer than Moldova yet
happier. Nigeria, for instance, or Bangladesh. The problem is that Moldovans
don’t compare themselves to Nigerians or Bangladeshis. They compare themselves
to Italians and Germans. Moldova is the poor man in a rich neighborhood, never
a happy position to be in.’
Not even democracy is a source of happiness for
the people living in Moldova:
‘It’s not that democracy makes people happy but rather that happy
people are much more likely to establish a democracy. The soil must be rich, culturally
speaking, before democracy can take root. The institutions are less important
than the culture. And what are the
cultural ingredients needed for democracy to take root? Trust and tolerance. Not
only trust of those inside your group— family, for instance— but external
trust. Trust of strangers. Trust of your opponents, your enemies, even. That
way you feel you can gamble on other people— and what is democracy but one
giant crapshoot? Thus, democracy
makes the Swiss happier but not the Moldovans. For the Swiss, democracy is the
icing on their prosperous cake. Moldovans can’t enjoy the icing because they
have no cake.’
What lessons can we
learn from Moldovas‘ unhappiness?
‘Lesson number one: “Not my problem” is not a
philosophy. It’s a mental illness. Right up there with pessimism. Other
people’s problems are our problems. If
your neighbor is laid off, you may feel as if you’ve dodged the bullet, but you
haven’t. The bullet hit you as well. You just don’t feel the pain yet. Or as
Ruut Veenhoven told me: “The quality of a society is more important
than your place in that society.”
Lesson number two: Poverty, relative poverty, is often an excuse for unhappiness. Yes,
Moldovans are poor compared to other Europeans, but clearly it is their
reaction to their economic problems, and not the problems alone, that explains
their unhappiness. The seeds of Moldovan unhappiness are planted in
their culture. A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship. A
culture that rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit. A culture that carves out no
space for unrequited kindness, no space for what St. Augustine called (long
before Bill Clinton came along) “the happiness of hope.’
And what is the conclusion of his work?
‘Money matters, but less than we think and not
in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic.
So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is
gratitude.’
I just love this book!
Read it!
