[HN Gopher] Germans among the unhappiest people in Europe
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       Germans among the unhappiest people in Europe
        
       Author : vinni2
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2023-12-12 21:31 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ec.europa.eu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ec.europa.eu)
        
       | chfritz wrote:
       | Being German and having left Germany I have a suspicion why: they
       | enjoy complaining too much. However that also raises an important
       | question that is only brushed on in the Context: how do you
       | control for a "cultural bias to complain". In a culture where
       | negativity and complaining is frowned upon, you'd imaging you'd
       | get higher scores -- even though the people don't actually feel
       | any different from the ones that like to complain.
        
         | dexwiz wrote:
         | I'm not German, but don't the Dutch also complain a lot? They
         | are even more honest than Germans in my experience. But the
         | Netherlands are much happier in this index, so I am not sure
         | this argument holds.
        
           | Mo3 wrote:
           | As a German living in NL: Same level of complaining, just
           | much more attention to socialisation in general. It's more of
           | a we mentality, in Germany you can live next to your
           | neighbors for 10 years without ever having talked to them. In
           | NL everybody knows each other, private matters are shared
           | freely even in the work environment, transparency, group
           | responsibility and team building are highly valued.
        
         | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
         | Complaining while staying moderately satisfied is a uniquely
         | British thing. But gosh, they also complain so much about
         | everything.
        
         | mensetmanusman wrote:
         | I don't believe there is a reason to control for the fact that
         | some cultures have more of a negative feedback loop than
         | others.
         | 
         | With NK and Saudi Arabia existing, certainly it is okay to
         | point out that some facets of culture are objectively better or
         | worse than others on a variety of metrics.
        
       | rcbdev wrote:
       | In Austria we like to joke about Germany as a "failed state"
       | sometimes, but in comparison it really does ring true. Maybe the
       | country would be better off as a loose confederation instead of a
       | federal union?
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-12 23:02 UTC)