
World Happiness Report, 2019 - eoinmurray92
https://kyso.io/becca/world-happiness
======
Leary
The World Happiness Report numbers are based only on the Cantril ladder. I
don't get why they don't use an average of the Cantril ladder, positive
affect, and negative affect.

The Cantril ladder asks respondents the following question:

"Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at
the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and
the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which
step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?"

Is this what people typically associate with "happiness"? This is more like
"life satisfaction" to me. [1]

[1][https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-happiest-people-world-
jon...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-happiest-people-world-jon-clifton)

~~~
mikekchar
Thank you for that! The results make so much more sense to me now. I've lived
in Canada, the US, the UK and Japan. One of the reasons I choose to remain in
Japan is that people seem a _lot_ happier here. This is in complete contrast
with the results (which ranks Canada up near the top).

I'm Canadian and while this is a completely subjective point of view, one of
the things I don't like about living there is that people seem perpetually
pissed off about one thing or another. The world is just wrong. It's all going
to hell in a hand basket. It shouldn't be like this. You can't have a
conversation on any topic without people complaining about one thing or
another (perhaps it's just the people I hung out with :-) ).

In Japan, people seem happy with their lot. However, it would be completely
ingenuous to say that they think they have life easy. They've got stupid
bosses and long hours and really low pay and nothing they can do about it
other than to go to the enkai, drink a lot and hope that their stupid boss
remembers the drunken rant that will save the company. Women and children
barely see the father in the family except on public holidays. If women work,
they have to put in stupid hours and also do all the house work. Children have
lots of stress because your entire career is practically mapped out when you
take your entrance exam for high school. If you goofed off when you were 14 or
15, then cut your salary in half for the rest of your life.

But the big difference is that they don't complain about it. It's all "Yeah,
it's difficult, but what are you going to do? You can only do your best" and
soldier on. And I think that's a common theme in Asia. In the west people seem
to act like spoiled brats in comparison -- always in a funk about _something_
, even though by comparison they have it dramatically better than anybody else
in the world.

But the key thing is that people in the west do actually realise that they
have it pretty good and are very proud of it. While in Asia people are
embarrassed about their situation even though they have accepted it.

Anyway, the above contained a lot of very general (and basically outrageous)
statements. It was not meant to constrain anyone based on where they are from
or what culture they enjoy. I was simply trying to communicate my prejudices
and why I was left scratching my head at this report.

~~~
dkural
Based on your paragraph on children never seeing their fathers etc. Japan does
seem terrible - perhaps Canadians, underneath all that complaining, are in
fact happier; whereas Japanese don't complain but suffer silently? The scores
may in fact be accurate..

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mattigames
There have been 2 million immigrants from Venezuela to Colombia last 4 years
escaping from lack of food, money, toilet paper among many other issues but
despite that this data shows Venezuela to be happier than Colombia; it doesn't
add up; maybe the people wrongly assumed the quiz was a government initiative
and decided to save face saying they are happy.

~~~
cambalache
Tu no eres venezolano pana por eso escribes sin saber. Tipico de este sitio
por cierto.

~~~
mattigames
No I'm not Venezuelan, but I have talked with many and when I ask them if the
situation is as bad as TV says they tell me is even worse; there isn't a
single day I don't cross paths with a homeless Venezuelan asking for money
here in Colombia.

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nemo1618
Interesting that GINI coefficient doesn't seem to be correlated with happiness
(except in Europe, for some reason). Reminds me of Taleb's assertion that
people don't resent the rich simply for being rich, they resent rich people
who have no skin in the game. Perhaps rich Europeans are perceived as having
less skin in the game?

~~~
badpun
The idea that people resent inequality always seemed incredibly sketchy to me.
Imagine a super-wealthy country where 99% of population has a yearly income of
$200k, and the 1% has an income of $200m. This society would be very unequal,
and yet somehow I can't imagine the 99% there being resentful of the rich,
voting for populists etc. So, I think that people resent the rich only if they
themselves are struggling to get by - but, as soon as their needs would be
met, they would stop caring about other people's bank accounts.

~~~
esotericn
Your example would look a bit like this:

The 1% own all of the property in the country, because their purchasing power
is so enormous.

One of them earns ten times more than 99 of the others put together.

The 1% turn the screws on the 99% such that $200K actually isn't a high income
any more. For example, monopolising land.

Money is just a number. What really matters is the share of resources; there's
some sort of Schwarzchild radius beyond which the wealthy turn into black
holes.

~~~
njepa
Isn't this essentially the case already, just that most don't get the $200k?
(only partly joking).

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seltzered_
Related, I've been fascinated by this plot of 'social thresholds achieved' at
the cost of 'biophysical boundaries transgressed' \-
[https://goodlife.leeds.ac.uk](https://goodlife.leeds.ac.uk) . I find it a
more level-headed analysis to frame arguments around what resource usage it
takes to be a 'happy' country, rather than just aggregating various happiness
metrics alone.

"No country in the world currently meets the basic needs of its citizens at a
globally sustainable level of resource use."

(summary article: [https://theconversation.com/is-it-possible-for-everyone-
to-l...](https://theconversation.com/is-it-possible-for-everyone-to-live-a-
good-life-within-our-planets-limits-91421) )

------
rdudekul
Here is the full report:

[https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-
report/2019/WHR19.pdf](https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-
report/2019/WHR19.pdf)

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ccarpenterg
The visualization is good, IMHO there's a lot of room for improvement though.
There's a big issue which undermines the credibility of the whole report:

\- Venezuela has a Cantril Ladder value of 6.2577.

That's very strange to say the least, and it's hard to believe to be honest.
Venezuelans are one of the most unhappy, miserable people in the world.

~~~
ccarpenterg
I took a quick look at the full report (linked in the comments), and I think
the data shown in the visualization might not be 100% accurate.

~~~
pzone
I think they're using data from 2008.

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pzone
Is this using the correct data? The happiness measure for the US of 7.28 seems
to be the 2008 value. The 2018 Cantril score according to the report was 6.88.

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marcus_holmes
Interesting that Australia is so high up, while SE Asia so low. My experience
of both (specifically Cambodia) is exactly the reverse.

But I suspect the cultural factors are at play here. Ask an Aussie if they're
living the best life and they'll say yes, proud in their Lucky Country and the
best beaches in the world (whichever city an Aussie inhabits has the "best
beaches in the world").

While in Cambodia they're more humble. Obviously this is to certain extent
about poverty. But it's also about the cultural tendency against boasting. And
an acknowledgement that life isn't perfect, there are things that need to
change and improve.

Yet, in my experience, obviously a limited sample of anecdata, the average
Cambodian is happier, quick to find the joy in life, with strong supportive
family connections. While Aussies are comparing ourselves to each other,
disconnected from our families, suiciding in record numbers, and angry at the
world.

~~~
chadcmulligan
I'm guessing you live in sydney :-)

~~~
marcus_holmes
Perth... but I see the same everywhere. Currently in Port Macquarie and the
same strange subdued anger is here.

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pcurve
Not sure if anyone saw this...

"Is Finland Really The Happiest Country In The World? (HBO)"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPU4F-Ajh8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPU4F-Ajh8)

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sgune
There was a recent video by VICE/VOX on Finland where it was noticed that
people didn't look visibly happy but were more satisfied with their life.

To that effect, I am interested to read some study on, like a satisfaction
index.

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eoinmurray92
[https://kyso.io/eoin/world-happiness-gdp-per-capita-
scaled](https://kyso.io/eoin/world-happiness-gdp-per-capita-scaled)

I forked OP's study and graphed out how Happiness vs GINI looks when you scale
the markers by GDP per capita, there is a clear trend of increasing happiness
with increasing GINI, but it snaps back for the highest GDP per capita
countries

(disclaimer - I founded Kyso - the company these studies are hosted on)

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7373737373
I wonder in what month the survey itself was answered. Because if it was in
the spring, I wouldn't be surprised if the Finns were above average happy at
that time. The harsh winter will sure lead to a more extreme sine-wave like
happiness pattern than in other countries.

Other problems may involve social signaling, because the Gallup world poll, on
which this report is based, is conducted via telephone.

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blunte
Obviously the poor people in the US were too busy working multiple jobs and
riding the bus to vote.

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dawhizkid
I feel like I’ve always led myself astray trying to pursue happiness. Meaning
& purpose seem to give me more “contentment” than optimizing my life for
constant ecstasy-like highs.

~~~
brm
You may be leading yourself astray by improperly defining happiness...

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nydel
we're likely all aware this is an incredibly difficult thing to quantify;
indeed this represents a respectable effort.

it's not that i am not interested in raw data over interpretation. usually we
don't have access to such data, or we don't know exactly what said data should
be.

so this to me is a sort of data pornography that i enjoy with a grain of ky
jelly.

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shmed
Surprising that the US consider themselves to have better social support than
Canada and many other european countries.

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leowoo91
How about the hedonic trademill?

~~~
KyleOS
Doesn't that relate only to life changes or specific events, so that shouldn't
apply no? The report looks at relatively constant factors in peoples' lives,
such as social support GDP per capita, corruption, life expectancy (unless you
move), etc. Maybe I'm wrong?

