[HN Gopher] U.S. once again hits new low in World Happiness Report
___________________________________________________________________
U.S. once again hits new low in World Happiness Report
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 156 points
Date : 2025-09-25 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.axios.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.axios.com)
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| I wonder what's happening with Switzerland, as it seem to also be
| dropping on the graph
| BoredPositron wrote:
| Austerity.
| tsunamifury wrote:
| Switzerland has been such an odd place where its population
| enjoys an enlightened high quality life funded on the back of
| the world's shadiest wealth.
|
| And in the midst of that is down to one final bank which if it
| collapsed is worth something like 20x the gdp of the nation in
| holdings.
|
| So maybe the Swiss are waking up to how much more delicate
| their situation may be.
| jmclnx wrote:
| Germany lower that the US ? That is a bit questionable to me.
| kylecazar wrote:
| It's a few spots higher than the US this year.
| kwanbix wrote:
| Actually two.
| layman51 wrote:
| This year it looks like Germany is higher on the scale. I am
| surprised by Mexico being really high.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| It's not all about finance. From my recent visits to Mexico
| everyone there seems much happier and friendlier than in the
| US and Europe. It was honestly quite striking. I have no
| theory what causes this (maybe large families?), but it was
| really quite obvious.
| mothballed wrote:
| I have an unsubstantiated theory that people in Latin
| America largely realize their institutions are completely
| broken or ineffectual, thus they and their local community
| are on their own in life. Thus it is pointless to be angry
| about a lot of things people in other places are angry
| about (corruption, government, immigrants, prices,
| corporations, etc) because it's a total lost cause, it's
| not like they could vote it away even if they tried. The
| end result is their sphere of worries basically are
| constrained to their immediate family, work, and community
| all of which are things they not only have control over but
| actually probably will care about them.
| sdsd wrote:
| It's mostly people just rating their own lives, which leaves
| it open to people in different cultures reporting the same
| actual happiness differently. In some cultures, saying you're
| happy is bragging, so people understate. In others, rating it
| low is complaining, so people report overly happy.
|
| I see World Happiness Report as primarily a measure of what's
| considered the most socially acceptable way to discuss
| happiness across cultures. In the USA, people often brag
| about how miserable they are, for example.
| knockergrowl wrote:
| They have standards.
| iagooar wrote:
| High crime, high taxes, stagnating economy. I am surprised
| Germany landed this high on the list.
| DarkNova6 wrote:
| I would be surprised if their ranking would be increased if
| any of these were addressed.
| fabian2k wrote:
| What high crime? I'm assuming we're using the US as a
| reference here given the audience of this site.
| twixfel wrote:
| Crime isn't high. No real risk of random violence in my
| experience (unlike the US, e.g. >weekly school shootings
| etc.). Taxes and economy, they aren't good right now true.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| > From the 2000-01 to 2021-22 school years, there were
| 1,375 school shootings at public and private elementary and
| secondary schools, resulting in 515 deaths and 1,161
| injuries.
|
| 1,700 people out of ~50 million K-12 students in a 22 year
| period.
|
| .003352% chance of injury or worse over 22 years. And now I
| realize the denominator should be bigger because it doesn't
| count faculty/staff or college students.
|
| There's no reason to live in fear of school shootings. (But
| there should still be much greater gun control.)
| heyheyhouhou wrote:
| I'm surprised that Germany is that high... it's decent in
| summer, miserable the rest of the year
| tsunamifury wrote:
| Why? Germany has been in a sustained economic decline now for
| many years and has seen the shuttering of manufacturing and
| skyrocketing housing costs.
|
| Americas mistakes are not as unique to us as Europeans keep
| telling themselves.
| fabian2k wrote:
| It seems this is self-reported. And we Germans certainly
| wouldn't admit that we're living pretty good lives overall.
| There's always something to complain about.
| bigtex88 wrote:
| Everything is expensive, our president is the dumbest person to
| ever live, we're constantly at threat of random shootings, and
| did I mention everything is expensive?
| ajmurmann wrote:
| People in Mexico are much poorer and the country has huge crime
| and corruption problems. Just the disappeared people and
| especially women alone are massively concerning and likely
| worse per capita than US school shootings. Yet somehow they are
| happier there.
| reaperducer wrote:
| People on the internet said the same things about W, and
| thought things couldn't get worse.
|
| Oops.
| standardUser wrote:
| I've heard a lot of worries from friends, especially friends with
| kids, I had never heard before. Mostly gun violence and the loss
| of women's rights, which some friends have voiced as restricting
| their options in where they will work and live that they never
| had before. That, and the new anxiety about bringing your phone
| on a plane, which I share.
| barkerja wrote:
| > and the new anxiety about bringing your phone on a plane
|
| This one I am not familiar with. What's the latest development
| here?
| standardUser wrote:
| An increase in phone searches at points of entry and broad
| threats of detention and passport revocation if you're
| critical of Trump / supportive of Palestine / a "member" of
| the latest "terrorist organization" Antifa
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/brian-
| mast-m...
| crooked-v wrote:
| All the anti-trans stuff has basically guaranteed that I can
| never live or work in half the country, because it would be
| fundamentally unsafe for some family members to even visit me
| there.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| A state by state breakdown would be more interesting.
|
| Many US states are larger than multiple EU countries combined.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-states-where-america...
| pnw wrote:
| Aren't the Nordic countries listed at the top also the highest
| consumers of anti-depressants? I only know this because having
| travelled to the Copenhagen airport many times with Danish
| colleagues, one of them mentioned it when we saw the inevitable
| "Welcome to the happiest country on Earth" posters.
| paxys wrote:
| [flagged]
| cesarvarela wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_antidepre.
| ..
| paxys wrote:
| > The OECD have not included the United States in these
| reviews, but if added the country would have the highest or
| second-highest rate.
|
| Nordic countries are also not on the top of the list.
|
| This is basically just a list of developed countries where
| people can afford luxury medication.
| impossiblefork wrote:
| It could also be a matter of the seasons in the case of
| Iceland.
| MangoToupe wrote:
| Putting aside the silliness of trying to quantify happiness,
| that could just as easily be a marker of wealth or western
| fascination with chemicals. I've visited extremely poor
| countries & from what I can tell, antidepressants aren't going
| to make a dent in many if not most issues humans face.
| tokai wrote:
| Turns out people are happy living places where they can get
| help and treatment.
| throwmeaway222 wrote:
| Probably happy where you can get a job.
| andsoitis wrote:
| > Aren't the Nordic countries listed at the top also the
| highest consumers of anti-depressants?
|
| Here's a report of the countries with most antidepressant users
| in the world 2024 (https://ceoworld.biz/2024/05/12/revealed-
| countries-with-most...):
|
| 1. Iceland
|
| 2. Portugal
|
| 3. UK
|
| 4. Canada
|
| 5. Australia
|
| 6. Sweden
|
| 7. Spain
|
| 8. New Zealand
|
| 9. Chile
|
| 10. Belgium
|
| This report lists OECD countries but excludes the US. If the US
| were included, the report suggests the US would be among the
| top (either highest or second-highest) in terms of DDD per
| 1,000 inhabitants.
| femto wrote:
| That could be because the "happy" countries have good health
| systems with wide coverage, so the people that need anti-
| depressants get them. In the "sad" countries people with
| depression often don't get to see a doctor, so a whole lot of
| people have undiagnosed and unmedicated depression.
| marc_abonce wrote:
| The article has a paywall for me and I was curious about their
| methodology. Fortunately, Wikipedia has some information:
|
| "Nationally representative samples of respondents are asked to
| think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a
| 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to
| rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
| nutjob2 wrote:
| It could be named the "lack of ambition" report.
|
| Or equally lack of envy or discontent.
| stickfigure wrote:
| This has all the scientific rigor of a "which Disney princess are
| you?" quiz.
| debo_ wrote:
| I'm the princess from Brave, in case you were wondering.
| smt88 wrote:
| How would you prefer they change it?
|
| Happiness can be studied in a lot of ways, and none of them is
| complete or accurate. Momentary happiness is possible in a
| miserable life and vice versa.
|
| I suspect this survey does tell us something over time, if
| methodology is stable.
| raw_anon_1111 wrote:
| Maybe not going bankrupt because of medical expenses as the
| only first world country with universal healthcare? When it
| comes to the hierarchy of needs, not dying because of
| unaffordable or unavailable healthcare I'm sure ranks near
| the top.
|
| There is no objective measure where the median American is
| better off than the median European.
|
| I'm saying this as a born and bread American citizen who is
| fortunate enough to be on the better side of the economic
| divide.
| nielsbot wrote:
| The parent was asking how one might change the survey, not
| the US.
| dotancohen wrote:
| This is another article in a long tail of anti-American and
| anti-Western content that has been cropping up online for about
| two years now. It's getting to be a very popular subject.
|
| Such content has always existed, you'd run into it once in a
| while. But for the past two years, I'm running into these
| articles almost every day.
| nielsbot wrote:
| For example?
|
| If you are also including this article.. I mean, it's not
| anti-western and I can't even see how it's anti-American.
| It's reporting survey results.
| yatopifo wrote:
| It's pretty wild how people lump the collective West and
| the US together. Maybe that worked in the past, but the US
| as it is today is definitely not how one would imagine a
| western country.
| rand846633 wrote:
| Here is how I read OP:
|
| It is anti American not in the sense of "I think America is
| a bad/immortal place" but much more in the sense of "we
| objectively can measure that in accordance to Americans,
| America is bad for Americans".. Now this could be true or
| not. It is anti American. If it is fair/true or not it's an
| other question.
| bryant wrote:
| > This is another article in a long tail of anti-American and
| _anti-Western_ content that has been cropping up online for
| about two years now. It 's getting to be a very popular
| subject.
|
| 1. Finland
|
| 2. Denmark
|
| 3. Iceland
|
| 4. Sweden
|
| 5. Netherlands
|
| It's just an interesting assertion you're making, I suppose.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| It always has been. Obviously no offense to any country, but
| Palestine and Ukraine which are quite literally in the middle
| of conflicts are "happier" than places like India tells you
| that happiness is a vague concept and the methodology to
| measure it is quite dubious.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Dory, obviously.
| jacobgkau wrote:
| Yeah, when people try to bring these "X country is happier than
| Y" studies into conversations, I always tell them: the only
| thing those studies capture is how well the population's been
| trained to report that they're happy.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| Thank god the Netherlands is only #5. It's high, but not too
| high. That said, the Finns probably got surveyed right after
| exiting the sauna. Is that fair?
| pickledonions49 wrote:
| America is rich, but normal citizens aren't making money anymore.
| Toby1VC wrote:
| I don't leave the house anymore. Am I considered normal?
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| [delayed]
| paxys wrote:
| Not just that, normal citizens are getting _poorer_ at a very
| rapid rate. Groceries, housing, healthcare, education - all
| more and more unaffordible every day. Inflation is eating away
| the American middle class lifestyle.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| We have been under attack for years and it is definitely working.
| Hell, at this point it's not off the table that our democracy
| itself will fall to this attack. I'd be incredibly impressed by
| the effectiveness, if it were not so frankly depressing.
| Jcampuzano2 wrote:
| Our president won't condemn violence and Politicians on the right
| all fan the flames while holding everyone to higher standards
| than the president himself when it comes to violent rhetoric.
|
| Gun violence regardless of position is still always in the news,
| and the party in power has no intention of doing anything about
| it.
|
| The political elite actively shun science.
|
| Tech billionaires are all licking the boot - so the hopes some
| had that those with money and large corporate entities would keep
| the government in check are long gone.
|
| Politicians actively endanger our international relationships
| with the entire world. Everybody in the world looks at us like a
| laughing stock.
|
| The elite actively welcome and cheer for AI taking peoples jobs.
|
| The economy is shit meanwhile our leaders lie to our faces about
| how tariffs and their own economic policies work and pointing at
| wall street gains meanwhile the majority of Americans don't
| invest in the first place.
|
| Our rights are being stripped. Military/National Guard is
| actively deployed in the streets in places, and there is threat
| of deployment in other places (hint left leaning places). Any
| speech not aligned with the presidents values is criticized and
| threatened at a national scale.
|
| Politics is just a reality TV show made for clicks and our
| current leaders are basically the equivalent if children
| bickering. "Transparency" is completely gone - they ran on
| transparency and then immediately flipped, who coulda seen that
| coming.
|
| There is literally nothing to be happy about here unless you're
| already rich.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| >Tech billionaires are all licking the boot
|
| I never understood that. What is the point of amassing all that
| money and power if you have to grovel to terrible people?
| analog8374 wrote:
| When you are a billionaire you are 100% committed to playing
| that game. There's no getting around it.
|
| And part of that game is great displays of sucking.
| megaman821 wrote:
| I was told that the billionaires run the goverment, so I
| don't know what you are talking about.
| Aloisius wrote:
| I'm not rich, but I'm still happy. I have little reason not to
| be.
|
| I woke up today and the sun shining and birds chirping. I made
| myself and my partner breakfast, greeted people on my way to
| work. I got a good amount of work done, then had a nice lunch
| and now I'm taking a little break.
|
| My life is better than it was growing up and substantially
| better than how bad it was for my ancestors.
|
| Perhaps my expectations are lower than yours or perhaps I'm
| more focused on my actual experiences rather than ruminating on
| whatever sensationalistic news story of the day is or what
| could happen.
| eikenberry wrote:
| Happiness is irrelevant, productivity is the only metric that
| matters. Joking, not joking.
| awalsh128 wrote:
| Get off HN and back to work you.
| pearlsontheroad wrote:
| Glad to see Mexico in the top 10 for the first time. Good
| economic outlook (lots of employment opportunities), enhanced
| social programs to combat extreme poverty, tight-knit families
| and communities. People are feeling good south of the border.
| Can't wait to join them.
| nielsbot wrote:
| The American capitalists might have something to say about that
| tho!
| analog8374 wrote:
| Mexico is putting out some fine cinema recently.
|
| Mexico might be the new California.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| >> Mexico might be the new California
|
| More like the new Oregon...the new place where people are
| justifiably pissed off about all the Californians moving
| there.
| cpursley wrote:
| Any recommendations?
| paxys wrote:
| It was also the old California.
| pavlov wrote:
| Some years ago I moved back to Finland (#1) after several years
| in the US (now at #24).
|
| While the quality of life really is objectively better with
| children, the secret to these rankings is probably the
| calibration inherent in the question. Finnish people just don't
| have high expectations. Every positive development is a welcome
| surprise.
|
| Americans are primed to want it all and seem to constantly
| compare themselves against unachievable standards on social
| media. "The American Dream" is more illusionary than ever.
| Everybody is a temporarily inconvenienced billionaire. This can
| be positive when it produces a drive that builds things, but it
| seems to mostly produce unhappiness right now because it's so out
| of balance.
| cpursley wrote:
| Yeah, these surveys seem to miss the cultural nuances. Totally
| agree with your assessment.
| codeulike wrote:
| _the secret to these rankings is probably the calibration
| inherent in the question. Finnish people just don't have high
| expectations. Every positive development is a welcome
| surprise._
|
| Yes but that calibration is also the secret to happiness.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| > Finnish people just don't have high expectations. Every
| positive development is a welcome surprise.
|
| You're just covering up the real truth: Finnish happiness is a
| result of everyone having access to a sauna :)
|
| Mina rakastan loyly, haluan saunassa nyt!
|
| (What I hope I said: 'I love throwing water on the sauna rocks
| and the experience of the resulting steam, I want to go into a
| sauna now')
|
| --------------
|
| On a more serious note, do you think the ever present threat of
| Russia and obligatory military service affects the expectations
| of Finnish people? Meaning, there is an actual tangible threat
| bordering Finland, which last invaded just 86 years ago (and
| forced Finland to ally with a country we won't name so they
| would emerge from WWII independent, only Norway and Finland
| managed to achieve that, every other European country bordering
| the USSR was behind the iron curtain)
|
| Do you think that keeps Finnish people's expectations more
| grounded? Or is it something else entirely?
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >While the quality of life really is objectively better with
| children, the secret to these rankings is probably the
| calibration inherent in the question.
|
| that's not really a secret or calibration issue though, that
| gets to the core of what happiness is, a relational property
| between expectation and reality. It's not an objective measure
| like income or height.
|
| I don't think the notion of an 'objective' quality of life even
| makes a lot of sense. Quality of life is always measured
| against some concrete alternative, not against some abstract
| scale or points based system. Two people are going to have very
| different attitudes towards some way of life purely depending
| on what direction they come from.
| jpgvm wrote:
| All happiness is relative to expectation.
|
| I have lived in Thailand for the last ~8yrs. It's unfortunate
| not to see it on the list as I think generally speaking Thais
| are much happier than either US (where I travel a lot for work)
| or Australians (my home country).
|
| A big chunk of that is the expectations, they don't need many
| material things to enjoy life and place a much higher emphasis
| on community and social standing (which isn't primarily derived
| from material wealth). Your occupation in Thailand has a very
| large impact on your social standing - more than the income you
| derive from it. i.e doctors are extremely well respected,
| however public doctors more so than private ones despite the
| latter being more wealthy.
|
| Sense of community is something that builds you up rather than
| the Western trope of comparing yourself to your neighbour that
| breaks you down.
|
| That very simple difference seems to have an outsized impact on
| how happy folk are here.
|
| There are exceptions and Bangkok is much more Western but if
| you live out in the country like me then Thailand is a very
| happy place.
| paxys wrote:
| While what you said may be true, it's also likely that (I
| assume) being an expat you are generally living in large
| urban areas and interacting with the top N% of the country in
| terms of wealth and opportunity. Go a bit deeper and the
| reality may be very different.
| awalsh128 wrote:
| As a US citizen I just want affordable healthcare, housing, and
| a system that supports families. I think for the younger
| generation where this isn't attainable it causes a lot of
| unhappiness and leads to greater stressors. Also we are at a
| big low with faith in our political system across the pillars
| of government. I think for most of us we don't want it all, we
| just want our basic needs met without worrying about losing
| then tomorrow.
| brap wrote:
| Would be interesting to see happiness segmented by Democrats/
| Republicans.
| jsbisviewtiful wrote:
| I would speculate Republicans are wildly happier when "their
| team is 'winning'" and Democrats would have a boost in
| happiness with Democrats in power, but nowhere near the swing
| of Republicans. Democrats, IMO, are more aware of the *real*
| current and longterm problems the US faces while Republicans
| listen to whatever Republicans say the "problems" are -
| "problems" that are too often very outlandish and not based in
| reality.
| brap wrote:
| I agree that both probably swing depending on who' "winning",
| although I bet that generally the Dems tend to be
| significantly less happy and therefore swing less,
| relatively.
| raw_anon_1111 wrote:
| As someone who leans left. I doubt too many Democrats were
| excited about Biden. He was just "not Trump". People actually
| liked Obama and Clinton.
| jacobolus wrote:
| Taking political constraints into account, the Biden
| Administration was just about the most successful and
| effective, in policy terms, of the past 50 years.
| Unfortunately the political landscape is pretty
| unfavorable, with GOP-supportive media, courts, and
| plutocrats.
|
| Unfortunately building and fixing things takes a lot of
| time and work, and doesn't make great soundbites.
| gdulli wrote:
| And the things they're mad about won't go away. Social change
| doesn't stop. Gay and trans people are not going back in the
| closet. Republicans consistently win on the economy and lose
| on social progress. But only the rich benefit from the
| former. The typical poor/middle class Republican life doesn't
| get better just because a bathroom bill passes, the source of
| their fear is still extant and used to keep them afraid.
| pixelready wrote:
| I suspect the results would be skewed significantly by
| whether or not the questions asked seemed overtly political
| in nature. If you probe people in general quality of life
| measures and carefully avoid loaded language, you'd likely
| find both sides are suffering in the US in real terms due to
| cost of living and loneliness crises. These are trends that
| have been prevailing since at least the 80s and were
| accelerated by mass media and the Internet.
|
| But tribal loyalty is a powerful force, so as soon as the
| questions or questioner appears partisan in any way, people
| form ranks for "their side" and you'd be hard pressed to get
| an honest response, least of all one that reflects badly on
| their team at the helm.
| retrocog wrote:
| If our happiness is connected to political party affiliation,
| we're in big trouble. The actual party doesn't matter. The true
| hallmark of totalitarianism is when every aspect of civil
| society is politicized.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _true hallmark of totalitarianism is when every aspect of
| civil society is politicized_
|
| No? The true hallmarks of totalitarianism are a lack of
| political competition (usually due to repression) and the
| state controlling "all aspects of society, including the
| family, religion, education, business, private property, and
| social relationships" [1].
|
| Ancient Athens was a famously political society. It was not
| totalitarian.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
| bitlax wrote:
| Conservatives outperform liberals in self-reported happiness
| and mental health when controlling for demographics.
| Braxton1980 wrote:
| [delayed]
| snickerbockers wrote:
| What was it that happened between 2023 and 2024? Here's all i can
| think of but none of these really explain it:
|
| * Major terrorist attack in israel; its obvious we care way too
| much about this random country on the other side of the planet
| but even so i can't see that impacting people's happiness this
| hard.
|
| * general populace now knows LLMs exist and may someday
| potentially perform jobs which were previously thought to be
| immune to automation but i would expect this to be offset by the
| people amazed by this technology.
|
| * It's becoming increasingly apparent that our then-current
| president might actually suffer from a more serious case of
| Alzheimer's than reagan did; simultaneously it is becoming
| increasingly apparent that the only viable alternative is going
| to be trump again.
|
| #3 is the only one that sort-of makes sense but I have doubts
| that people are this invested in presidential circuses on a
| personal level.
| ajkjk wrote:
| wait, is your point that there is some mystery about what
| happened to make the US even less happy? ... what didn't
| happen? It's hard to think of anything good that has happened
| in the last few years. Every month is scarier and more
| uncertain than the last.
| snickerbockers wrote:
| i mean specifically between '23 and '24, i don't remember
| much happening on the national level then. COVID's been in
| the background for a few years and trump hasn't been re-
| elected yet.
| georgemcbay wrote:
| As an older person (52 y/o) who remembers a time when a lot
| more people I know (of all ages) were optimistic about the
| future, I believe the major factor leading to generalized
| anxiety currently is not about one event, but all the additive
| effects of massive and ever increasing wealth inequality piling
| up year over year.
|
| That combined with little to no hope that either political
| party will do a damn thing to fix it (Democrats at least have
| some politicians who actually want to, but they are stymied by
| their own leadership, never mind the problem of not having any
| real national level political power currently).
| pesus wrote:
| Agreed. Even as someone only on the tail end of the
| millennial generation, the total disappearance of hope in the
| past 10-15 years (but especially in the last 5) has been
| palpable. There's a tweet that's been floating around
| recently that says something along the lines of "basically
| nobody under 40 expects good things to happen ever again",
| and I think that sums it up pretty accurately.
| dang wrote:
| I believe that these self-reported surveys are partly testing the
| cultural acceptability of complaining--that is, the more
| unacceptable it is to complain, the happier one comes out in the
| scoring. How well that corresponds to 'actual' happiness is, of
| course, a different question.
|
| I base this on experience with some of the 'happy' cultures on
| the list. However, I would be interested in knowing whether HN
| members from Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the
| Netherlands (to name the top 5) agree with this concept or not.
| lossolo wrote:
| There are cultural differences, but once you have the baseline,
| I think the delta is more interesting, so how happiness has
| changed in a country throughout the years.
| 7952 wrote:
| I guess a cultural willingness to complain could also have a
| feedback effect on the 'actual' happiness.
| paxys wrote:
| Exactly. This is like saying "the people aren't unhappy, they
| just think they are unhappy". Well if they think they are
| unhappy then they are unhappy.
| Herring wrote:
| Yes it has nothing to do with healthcare, education, work-life
| balance etc. Must be something else.
| timeon wrote:
| and commuting, not sure if nerd-snipping with Waymo is going
| to help here.
| falcor84 wrote:
| How does nerd-sniping with Waymo work? Is it about nerd-
| sniping a person so they get hit by a Waymo, or is it about
| nerd-sniping the Waymo itself, distracting it before having
| a human hit it?
|
| D'oh, I think I got nerd-sniped there for a second.
| izacus wrote:
| Plenty of eastern European countries on that list above US, so
| your theory has no real basis.
| analog8374 wrote:
| You buried your thesis statement.
|
| "US is not actually unhappy. The survey is broken" or somesuch.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| It is obvious to anybody who has ever been to the Nordic
| countries: They are far from being the happiest people in the
| world. A lot of them are very miserable, for reasons that I
| could never deduce.
| vidarh wrote:
| Is it? As someone from Norway, who has spent plenty of time
| in the other Nordic countries, I'd disagree strongly. We'll
| complain a lot. Until you ask us to actually rank how happy
| we are with our lives.
|
| If you base you impression on what people are saying without
| explicitly asking _how happy they are with their lives_ ,
| then you're getting an impression that's biased by almost an
| eagerness to complain, despite at the end of the day
| generally being very satisfied.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| You're disagreeing with yourself. Somebody who complains a
| lot and in other ways shows how miserable they are does not
| become happy by saying they are happy. You can maybe lie to
| yourself that you are happy, but you can't fool others.
| Although Norwegians and Danes are generally happier than
| Finns and Swedes.
| vidarh wrote:
| I'm Norwegian, and we're down to 7th place, but I've lived half
| my life in the UK, and I can tell you that Norwegians will
| complain just as much as people in the UK, if not far more
| whenever I visit family.
|
| It's the national sport. In fact, if you tell most Norwegians
| about coming 7th on a World Happiness ranking, odds are high
| most of us will complain loudly about that too, thinking we
| deserve a higher spot, and that there's no ways the Finns and
| especially Swedes can be higher than us on the list (being
| beaten by the Danes is okay).
|
| In other words, I don't think this matches cultural
| acceptability of complaining _at all_. Norwegians will express
| dissatisfaction loudly and about everything (don 't get a
| Norwegian started on the quality of the roads, or taxes; at the
| same time, don't get a majority of Norwegians started on
| "American conditions" or the political parties that might bring
| them about by lowering taxes), while still generally living
| pretty great lives.
| crockeo wrote:
| Half Dutch half American. I find the Dutch complain a decent
| bit more, but I find that there is more to complain about in
| the States. Maar wat is het leven zonder klagen?
|
| One thing I've noticed being back recently: cost of living has
| gotten very unaffordable in Amsterdam the last time I was back.
| Cost of basic goods is on par with what I'm used to paying in
| major American cities, but my Dutch relatives often earn a
| decent bit less. I wonder if this will affect Dutch happiness
| in future surveys once affordability exceeds more and more
| people's earnings.
| brap wrote:
| For some grounding, I would like to see how many US citizens
| migrate to those happy countries vs how many happy citizens
| migrate to the US.
|
| Actions speak louder.
| BobbyJo wrote:
| Almost no one from North Korea emigrates to the US. Conclusion:
| North Koreans are _very_ happy.
| mothballed wrote:
| I would genuinely be shocked if North Korean's aren't happy.
| They're basically told they live in the best place on earth,
| have no basis for comparison to believe otherwise, and the
| sphere of influence of any particular average N Korean is
| narrow enough that if they were sad it would basically be
| artificially constraining their sadness to ones about
| personal failures they probably would rather not believe they
| have.
|
| It's not starving, not having healthcare etc that makes you
| sad so much I think as thinking others are getting it while
| you are not, or believing that someone is pulling something
| over you rather than the situation being in your hands. If
| you think you're doing the best you can and your own success
| or failure is up to you, it's hard to be particularly sad
| about the situation compared to someone in another position.
| wanderingstan wrote:
| Citation is needed for this:
|
| > It's not starving, not having healthcare etc that makes
| you sad so much I think as thinking others are getting it
| while you are not...
|
| While social comparison is proven to be _part_ of
| happiness, the science is quite strong that starving or
| being sick makes someone unhappy.
| brap wrote:
| No need for the snark, it's very obviously a flawed heuristic
| which can obviously be improved with some adjustments. But
| this isn't meant to be a research proposal. It was a simple
| example meant to illustrate a simple point.
|
| Point being, some people like to whine even when they know
| damn well 99% of the world would happily trade places with
| them, and for very good reasons.
| BobbyJo wrote:
| Wasn't intending snark. I figured it was a goofy way to
| point out the flaw in your implicit position that
| emigration data would be more meaningful than the survey.
| It still might be, it would just depend a lot more on laws
| and the marketing of economic opportunities than happiness
| IMO.
|
| > Point being, some people like to whine even when they
| know damn well 99% of the world would happily trade places
| with them, and for very good reasons.
|
| Well yeah, but this is an broad survey, not people whining.
| nielsbot wrote:
| > some people like to whine
|
| When I say our for-profit healthcare system is cruel,
| expensive and ineffective overall, am I whining?
|
| When I say it sucks that we spend $1T on "defense" while
| raising taxes on working class people, is that whining?
| nielsbot wrote:
| > some people like to whine
|
| When I say our for-profit healthcare system is cruel,
| expensive and ineffective overall, am I whining?
|
| When I say it sucks that we spend $1T on "defense" while
| raising taxes on working class people, is that whining?
|
| Those things make people less happy.
|
| Is your diagnosis the people are whining and that's why the
| US isn't at the top of the rankings like Denmark is? Do
| Danes just whine less?
|
| I want to share one of my favorite quotes which is apt:
|
| "I love America more than any other country in the world
| and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to
| criticize her perpetually." -- James Baldwin
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| I agree with your larger point, but to be fair if you have to
| compare the U.S. to North Korea, that's probably a bad sign.
| paxys wrote:
| Yeah homeless drug addicts living on the streets of San
| Francisco aren't all migrating to Denmark so they must be
| happy.
| timeon wrote:
| Is this coping attempt?
| nielsbot wrote:
| People don't simply emigrate when conditions are bad or even
| horrible.
|
| There are many barriers which can be almost impossible to
| surmount: learning a new language, leaving your friends behind,
| having to finding a job (what if you don't speak the language),
| having to sell you house and car, etc.
| theuiufvbu46764 wrote:
| Spoken like a true American.
|
| Americans are so drunk on the liberalism kool-aid that they
| think they can just relocate and instantly be accepted into new
| communities.
|
| (This doesn't work)
| toephu2 wrote:
| Interesting that Mexico is much higher than the U.S.! I could
| believe it though.
| analog8374 wrote:
| Blow off your credit card payments. It's the only sane course.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-09-25 23:00 UTC)