What Caught My Eye Today: Happy, Happy

Fred's Note: Today's posting is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. Why, you might ask? Why the heck not, you cranky dolts!

Happiness (Part I) - Denmark has taken the top spot on the United Nation's first ever World Happiness Report. For those of you who keep tabs on this sort of thing, like I do, this comes as no big surprise. There must be something in the water that Scandinavians have tapped into that the rest of us just haven't figured out yet. The report was commissioned for the United Nations Conference on Happiness in order to "review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness." Okay then. There is a U.N. sponsored conference whose sole purpose for existing is figuring out how happy I am. Isn't that nice. The rankings are based on a number called the "life evaluation score," a measurement which takes into account a variety of factors including people's health, family and job security as well as social factors like political freedom and government corruption. For my money, retirement age would have been included as well. The earlier the better, I say. Based on its "life evaluation score," which is rated on a scale of 0-to-10, the report found that Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands outstripped all other nations with an average score of 7.6 between them. On the other end of the spectrum, Benin, Central African Republic, Togo and the Sierra Leone had an average life evaluation score of 3.4. The United States ranked 11th overall. So basically, get yourself some winter wear and move north. And if that isn't your cup of tea, just avoid Africa.

Top 10		Bottom 10
1	Denmark	10	Bulgaria
2	Finland	9	Congo (Brazzaville)
3	Norway	8	Tanzania
4	Netherlands	7	Haiti
5	Canada	6	Comoros
6	Switzerland	5	Burundi
7	Sweden	4	Sierra Leone
8	New Zealand	3	Central African Republic
9	Australia	2	Benin
10	Ireland	1	Togo

Happiness (Part II) - The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index, which are seen as not taking sustainability into account. In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy. Call me crazy, but I tend to believe there is some corralation between being rich and being happy. The HPI is based on general utilitarian principles — that most people want to live long and fulfilling lives, and the country which is doing the best is the one that allows its citizens to do so, while avoiding infringing on the opportunity of future people and people in other countries to do the same. However, naive and idealistic this might be, you have to applaud the altruistic aims of the rankings. Never going to happen, but admirable nonetheless. The HPI is not a measure of which are the happiest countries in the world. Countries with relatively high levels of life satisfaction, as measured in surveys, are found from the very top (Colombia in 6th place) to the very bottom (the USA in 114th place) of the rank order. The HPI is best conceived as a measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country. Such efficiency could emerge in a country with a medium environmental impact and very high well-being, but it could also emerge in a country with only mediocre well-being, but very low environmental impact. Nine out of the ten top countries are located in the Caribbean Basin, despite high levels of poverty. Must be all that sunny weather and yummy tropical drinks. I hear you barely notice the poverty if you are bombed out of your mind. The ranking is led by Costa Rica due to its very high life expectancy which is second highest in the Americas, and higher than the U.S., experienced well-being higher than many richer nations and a per capita footprint one third the size of the U.S. Among the top 40 countries by overall HPI score, only four countries have a GDP per capita of over US$15,000. The highest ranking OECD country is Israel in 15th place, and the top Western European nation is Norway in 29th place, just behind New Zealand in 28th. Among the top five world's biggest economies in terms of GDP, Japan has the highest ranking in 45th place, followed by Germany in 46th, France is placed 50th, China 60, and the U.S. is ranked 105, mainly due to its environmental footprint of 7.5, the highest of all countries rated for the 2012 index.

Top 10		Bottom 10
1	Costa Rica	10	South Africa
2	Vietnam	9	Kuwait
3	Colombia	8	Niger
4	Belize	7	Mongolia
5	El Salvador	6	Bahrain
6	Jamaica	5	Mali
7	Panama	4	Central African Republic
8	Nicaragua	3	Qatar
9	Venezuela	2	Chad
10	Guatemala	1	Botswana