

Why Iceland has the happiest people on earth - lurkage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/iceland

======
motoko
I visited Iceland last month on business for about a week.

Iceland seems great statistically because there is no national underclass.
Most Icelanders would be considered "middle class" today in the United States:
some college, literate, aspiring to home ownership, and employed in services.

In every other country, the national statistics are skewed by some
underemployed, undereducated, and often foreign "labor class" (or worse,
welfare class). There is no "ghetto" in Iceland (though strangely, graffiti is
everywhere). Why?

Because every modern nation was at one time "industrial," and industrial
countries must import/create/preserve a labor class to work factories and
plantations. But Iceland went from "frozen rock" to "modern service economy"
in about 70 years.

I assure you that it's not a magical fairyland where everyone is happy. It's
more like an American suburb of 250,000 (maybe in WA) where everyone is white
and employed in an office... and a glacier/volcano/wind storm has trimmed away
the unpleasant urban and rural elements and plunged them into the Arctic
ocean.

Icelanders have the same hopes and strifes one would expect in such a suburb.

~~~
Tichy
Also, I think they are rich because of the cheap energy sources?

~~~
marvin
There's more to it than that, and the same goes for Norway. Sweden (ranking 6
on the 2007 index) has much of the same social structure as Iceland and
Norway, but does not have the same availability of cheap energy. Sweden _does_
have a fair amount of hydropower available, but you'll also find other
countries in the top of the Human Development Index that do not have access to
such luxuries.

Also, notice that the Middle East is nowhere near the top of the index. Having
abundant natural resources certainly helps things along if a country has good
leadership, but it is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition.

~~~
Tichy
So which countries without natural resources are dong well? Japan, perhaps?

~~~
gahahaha
Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Denmark (some
oil/gas), Netherlands (some oil/gas), parts of the Caribbean?

Seems to be a Europe/East Asia bias going on here. In addition some of the
richest states in the US doesn't have a lot of natural resources.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I wonder how the individual US states would fare if measured separately in
such surveys. There really is a massive cultural and economic variance between
them. McDonald's is everywhere, sure, but if you scratch the surface the
differences can be vast. It's often misleading to try to generalize across the
entire nation. Many of the tourists and exchanges students I've met here have
mentioned how they didn't really appreciate the size and diversity of the
nation until they experienced it for themselves.

~~~
jimbokun
Considering only GDP:

[http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-
re...](http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed-for-
countries-with-similar-gdps/)

------
mhartl
This is cool, though I worry that people will conclude (as the Icelandic
president has) that Iceland has "blended the best of Europe and the United
States here, the Nordic welfare system with the American entrepreneurial
spirit".

There are a lot of policies that work well with an ethnically homogeneous
society of 313,000 people but completely fail on a larger scale. This scaling
problem is the perennial defect of socialism. (Well, one of them, anyway.) In
contrast, free markets appear to scale indefinitely, naturally finding the
right business unit sizes along the way. (For example, for gourmet
restaurants, it's ~1 restaurant; for fast food restaurants, it's a national or
global branded chain.)

I suspect that the natural business unit size for much of Iceland's 'Nordic
welfare system' is approximately 313,000 ethnically homogeneous people.

~~~
miked
Over the last several decades I've been reading articles in the US/UK press of
the "it's so glorious to live in Scandanavian welfare state X". The young
whippersnappers that read HN won't remember these, of course. In the past, X
was almost always Sweden. In Sweden and other Scandanavian countries there was
always plenty of criticism of the US and its racial problems and how they
didn't suffer any of those. Then they began to import non-Scandanavians and
things changed. Malmo, Sweden now has the highest rape rate in the developed
world.

Author Bruce Bawer, a political liberal, published a book critical of
evangelical Christians years ago and then moved to Norway to marry his partner
(they're gay). Here's what he werote a few weeks ago:
(<http://memo.brucebawer.com/>) "During the nine years and two weeks that I've
lived in Oslo, I've seen the city change significantly -- for the worse. I
don't remember exactly when it started reminding me of New York in the 1970s
and 80s, but by now the resemblance is undeniable. Burglary, rape, gay-
bashing, mugging, graffiti, vandalism: you name it, we've got it in spades,
and it's still on the rise. Public stabbings and gang fights have become
routine...The statistics are dire. Last month came news that the rate of
reported crimes in Oslo is now four times that of New York; last week it
emerged that Oslo's rape figures reached an all-time high in 2007; today it
was reported that over 99 percent of street robberies in the city go unsolved.
To any unblinkered individual who lives here, these statistics are no
surprise. Yet civic authorities, faced with the steady erosion of law and
order, exude indifference and ineffectuality."

As for Iceland, it elected a government in the late 1980's that enacted a
number of free-market reforms and, by an amazing coincidence, the economy took
off. "Much of the nation’s prosperity is the result of free-market policies,
including a 36 percent flat tax on labor income, a 10 percent flat tax on
capital income, and a corporate tax rate of just 18 percent (down from 50
percent at the end of the 1980s)." [http://www.cato-at-
liberty.org/2008/02/21/iceland-and-taiwan...](http://www.cato-at-
liberty.org/2008/02/21/iceland-and-taiwan-to-slash-corporate-tax-rates/)
Amazingly, The Guardian couldn't find space to mention any of that.

~~~
ible
Regarding your final point, the article does mention it, though not in detail.

"I believe we have blended the best of Europe and the United States here, the
Nordic welfare system with the American entrepreneurial spirit,' he said,
pointing out that Iceland, unlike the other Nordic countries, had
exceptionally low personal and corporate tax rates. 'This has meant not only
that Icelandic companies stay and foreign ones come, but that we have
increased by 20 per cent our tax revenue owing to increased turnover.'"

The article presents a pretty narrative, not a substantive account of
different economic theories and their effects, but it does mention both the
welfare state policies and the free-market ones, suggesting that choosing the
best of both is what has improved Iceland. On the surface this seems sensible
to me. The Nordic countries generally have better 'quality of life' than the
US does, the US generally is stronger economically.

~~~
miked
Good catch on my final point. Thanks.

>> "The Nordic countries generally have better 'quality of life' than the US
does, the US generally is stronger economically."

Iceland certainly sounds nice, if you could tolerate the weather. "Nordic
countries" is too general to be useful, I think. I'm a bit sceptical about
making the quality of life comparisons, in any case. While traveling in Turkey
about 7 years ago, a Swedish woman told me that a software developer there
takes home about $1,300/month on average (i.e., after taxes). Restaurants in
Sweden are so expensive that hardly anyone eats out. Six years ago (while the
dollar was still strong) a large pizza in downtown Oslo went for $60. Even
business executives pack a lunch.

Norway is doing fine economically, since it has a tiny population and is the
world's third largest exporter of oil (though that's running out). Given the
explosion in crime that Bawer mentions (at much greater length in his book
_While Europe Slept_, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics
Cirlce Award), I think I'll find someplace else to hang. I've lived in Europe
twice (Germany and Greece) and, while it had its points, it always felt sleepy
to me.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
_Iceland certainly sounds nice, if you could tolerate the weather._

How does it compare to say, Wisconsin?

------
hooande
Iceland also has the most discos per capita out of any country in Europe.

I've been to Iceland many years ago. The people I met during my brief stay
there seemed as happy as anywhere else. Then again, I didn't meet many people
because it was too cold to go out most of the time.

BTW, don't be fooled by this whole "iceland is warm and greenland is cold"
thing. Iceland is very, very cold. There's nothing to break the wind on the
volcanic lava...it was the coldest I've ever been.

------
iamdave
And here I was thinking the Icelanders were so happy because they know they
can take over the world with relative ease ala the Iceland strategem in Risk.

------
DaniFong
"Paternity leave is the thing that made the difference for women's equality in
this country."

That's surprising, and intriguing. I've never thought of that, but it's quite
plausible. I wonder if it's right...

~~~
Tichy
I wonder how to make it happen. I think in germany we now have laws that allow
paternity leave for fathers and mothers alike. But if the father earns much
more money than the mother, it still doesn't make sense economically for the
father to stay at home.

EDIT: here on paternity leave, you get some money, but not your full salary.

~~~
ichverstehe
Which is not the case in Iceland:

 _"All parents, who do not enjoy full contractual salary rights from their
employers are paid by the Maternity/Paternity Leave Fund after they have been
active in the domestic labour market for six consecutive months prior to the
first day of the maternity/paternity leave."_

[http://www.invest.is/Doing-Business-in-Iceland/Labour-
Force-...](http://www.invest.is/Doing-Business-in-Iceland/Labour-Force-
Employee-Benefits/)

------
maximilian
I kinda want to move to iceland after reading that. I've always seen pictures
and wanted to visit, but It'd be fun to go and do research there or something.

~~~
brentr
I thought about the same thing. The University of Iceland apparently teaches
its classes in Icelandic, but (from the website) the textbooks are mostly in
English. Perhaps learning Icelandic and then doing a PhD might be a way to
achieve that.

~~~
jayroh
The Icelandic language is quite possibly one of, if not THE, most unique
language I've ever heard spoken. I took a trip with my fiance out there a year
or two ago and, while most people were glad to speak english to us, I was
quite rapt whenever I could eavesdrop in on anyone speaking their native
Icelandic. It's almost ... elvish?

Having said that, because of that fact I can't imagine the process of learning
said language to be too too easy.

------
DmitriLebedev
Good social development statistics doesn't mean the people are happy with
their lives. As I see, the article takes the results for granted without any
doubt and then speculates and searches for the reasons. I'd at least search
for the polls that ask if the people are optimistic/pessimistic, consider
themselves happy/unhappy.

Though, I believe, standing far from the noisy Europe, maybe far from the
consumption rush, they may feel calm, happy and optimistic. That's great.

> "The study was lent some credibility by the finding that the Russians were
> the most unhappy."

Yes, if you assume the myth that life in Russia very unpleasant, the study
gets credibility. On the other hand, in the year the study was made, other
studies showed Russian population to be the most optimistic in the history,
thanks to fast economic growth and, I think, to breaking the pessimistic
soviet mentality.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
My personal hope is that optimism for the future and recognition of current
conditions are orthogonal.

------
Mistone
'Paternity leave is the thing that made the difference for women's equality in
this country.'

this makes such a huge difference, this is a not socialist vs. capitalist
comparison - it is simply a matter of putting peoples needs before
corporations.

------
ComputerGuru
_"The study was lent some credibility by the finding that the Russians were
the most unhappy."_

...and the Guardian's credibility was ripped to shreds when turns out that
Russia did NOT score lowest on the UN Human Development Index report (as seen
at <http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/>)

Russia is number 67 out of 70 in the "highest development" section, and number
67 out of 177 total. Sorry, Guardian.

~~~
randomtask
They weren't referring to the UN report when they said that the Russians are
the most unhappy. They were instead referring to a separate "seemingly serious
academic study", which supposedly attempts to gauge the "happiness" of each of
the nationalities.

------
nelud
"The study was lent some credibility by the finding that the Russians were the
most unhappy"

I've always thought most unhappy people live in China, India, Pakistan and
such...

The statement above shows that happiness is mostly depending on culture. I
personally found Russian culture and way of perceiving the world too
depressive.

You wont be happy if you just move to Iceland. Learning Icelander's style of
world perceiving is necessary. Could you?

~~~
DmitriLebedev
> I personally found Russian culture and way of perceiving the world too
> depressive.

Examples?

------
jayroh
Anyone who wants to learn a little more about Icelandic roots you should look
for any books by Halldor Laxnes
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halld%C3%B3r_Laxness>), specifically
Independent People (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_People>).

------
bigtoga
I'm so glad this was posted on YC. Thank you! I'm glad this place is featuring
the exact same links as reddit, digg, slashdot, etc. Woohoo copycats!

------
wallflower
Icelandic is one of the world's most difficult languages to learn

~~~
sbt
No. Islandic is closest to old norse, proto-north-germanic. Anyone from
Scandinavia can pick it up relatively easily. Other Germanic languages such as
English are not so far removed either.

------
mynameishere
I don't know about you, but I strongly suspect Iceland needs a good stiff dose
of diversity:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland#Demographics>

It's all just a bunch of what Barack Obama would call "typical white people".
There are 743 Filipinos! Can you imagine that being the largest "diverse"
subset of a population in any other country? I sure can't. Perhaps the United
Nations should send a commission on human rights to see what kind of
discriminatory migration policies Iceland has enacted.

~~~
anamax
Needs? What benefit would Iceland get from more diversity?

Iceland's success proves that diversity is not necessary for their level of
success. If you want to argue that they'd do better with more diversity, you
get to provide relevant examples.

Or, are you suggesting that Iceland is obligated to do worse to have
diversity?

~~~
rms
He was trolling by being sarcastic, move along

~~~
mynameishere
You win! I'll say this in my defense though: The causes of happiness are so
foggy that, really, anything goes when coming up with wherefores. No surprise
that a socialist rag determined that socialism is the answer.

