Socialists are happier.

[Blind groper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world ... .html?_r=0

The ten happiest nations in the world are all, to some degree, socialist.

1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Iceland
4. Norway
5. Finland
6. Canada
7. Netherlands
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. Sweden

The USA, in spite of being wealthy can only manage 13th place.

The single biggest factor determining happiness by country is the disparity between rich and poor. Socialism reduces that disparity. Obviously, nations that are very poor, or are engaged in civil war, fall to the bottom of the list as unhappy places.

Wealth is important, but so is the distribution of wealth. When a country has lots of money, but it is concentrated in the hands of a few, the overall result is a loss of happiness. Socialism does not interfere with a nation becoming wealthy, but does reduce the disparity across societal classes.

[JimC]

And marxists are absolutely fucking ecstatic!

[Tero]

What about the guns? You can't have fun without guns. And beer cans. And possums.

[Strontium Dog]

That socialist bastion... Switzerland

[JimC]

That socialist bastion... Switzerland

Really, I think that the OP isn't literally about countries being socialist in the full economic sense of the word, but instead having strong social welfare programs; these, of course, are fully compatible with a strong free-enterprise based economy...

[rainbow]

[Svartalf]

that bit of statistics is wroàng, France is the world champion of head meds consumption, I keep hearing so.

[Brian Peacock]

I'm happy and I live in an income inequality, child poverty, trickle-down heat sink.
Those head meds are bloody excellent.

[pErvinalia]

Of course they are happy, they are free to steal money from the wealth creators! [/seth]

[laklak]

Of course they say they're happy, if they say they aren't it's the fucking gulag for them.

Are you for being completely happy in Socialist Worker's Paradise, Comrade?

Da, Commissar!

[Blind groper]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_o ... erty_Index

No gulag.

The happiest nations all rank highly in the list of countries with most liberty.

My country is no. 5, while Australia and Switzerland are no. 8. The USA is at number 20. This lower rating is not due to bias. This analysis was done by the Cato Institute, which is an American group that supports gun freedom. If it has a bias, it is pro-American.

[Brian Peacock]

This isn't a triumph of Socialism (capital 'S') but a benefit of social-ism, the administration of executive power for the benefit of all citizens regardless of income, ethnicity, religion, politics, gender, or age etc. In fact, one might take these outcomes as sound evidence that reducing income inequality while using taxation to support the provision of social services to meet need results in a better society for all, even if the very few at the very top of the income band have a bit less than they might have had otherwise.

[rainbow]

that bit of statistics is wroàng, France is the world champion of head meds consumption, I keep hearing so.

mais vin ne sont pas comptés

[piscator]

By Kyle Smith January 11, 2015 | 6:00am

...

Let’s look a little closer, suggests Michael Booth, a Brit who has lived in Denmark for many years, in his new book, “The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia” (Picador).

Those sky-high happiness surveys, it turns out, are mostly bunk. Asking people “Are you happy?” means different things in different cultures. In Japan, for instance, answering “Yes” seems like boasting, Booth points out. Whereas in Denmark, it’s considered “shameful to be unhappy,” newspaper editor Anne Knudsen says in the book.
Moreover, there is a group of people that believes the Danes are lying when they say they’re the happiest people on the planet. This group is known as “Danes.”

“Over the years I have asked many Danes about these happiness surveys — whether they really believe that they are the global happiness champions — and I have yet to meet a single one of them who seriously believes it’s true,” Booth writes. “They tend to approach the subject of their much-vaunted happiness like the victims of a practical joke waiting to discover who the perpetrator is.”

Danes are well aware of their worldwide reputation for being the happiest little Legos in the box. Answering “No” would be as unthinkable as honking in traffic in Copenhagen. When the author tried this (once), he was scolded by his bewildered Danish passenger: “What if they know you?” Booth was asked.

That was a big clue: At a party, the author joked, it typically takes about eight minutes for people to discover someone they know in common. Denmark is a land of 5.3 million homogeneous people. Everyone talks the same, everyone looks the same, everyone thinks the same.

This is universally considered a feature — a glorious source of national pride in the land of humblebrag. Any rebels will be made to conform; tall poppies will be chopped down to average.

The country’s business leaders are automatically suspect because of the national obsession with averageness: Shipping tycoon Maersk McKinney Moller, the richest man in the country before his death in 2012, avoided the national shame of being a billionaire by being almost absurdly hoi polloi. He climbed stairs to his office every day, attended meetings until well into his 90s and brown-bagged his lunch.

An American woman told Booth how, when she excitedly mentioned at a dinner party that her kid was first in his class at school, she was met with icy silence.

One of the most country’s most widely known quirks is a satirist’s crafting of what’s still known as the Jante Law — the Ten Commandments of Buzzkill. “You shall not believe that you are someone,” goes one. “You shall not believe that you are as good as we are,” is another. Others included “You shall not believe that you are going to amount to anything,” “You shall not believe that you are more important than we are” and “You shall not laugh at us.”

Richard Wilkinson, an author and professor who published a book arguing for the superiority of egalitarian cultures, told Booth, “Hunter-gatherer societies — which are similar to prehistoric societies — are highly egalitarian. And if someone starts to take on a more domineering position, they get ridiculed or teased or ostracized. These are what’s called counter-dominance strategies, and they maintain the greater equality.”

So Danes operate on caveman principles — if you find it, share it, or be shunned. Once your date with Daisy the Sheep is over, you’d better make sure your friends get a turn. (Bestiality has traditionally been legal in Denmark, though a move to ban it is under way. Until recently, several “bestiality brothels” advertised their services in newspapers, generally charging clients $85 to $170 for what can only be termed a roll in the hay.)


They need a drink

The flip side of the famous “social cohesion” is that outsiders are unwelcome. Xenophobic remarks are common. At gatherings, the spirit of “hygge” — loosely translated as cozy — prevails. It’s considered uncouth to try to steer the conversation toward anything anyone might conceivably disagree about. This is why even the Danes describe Danes as boring.

In addition to paying enormous taxes — the total bill is 58 percent to 72 percent of income — Danes have to pay more for just about everything. Books are a luxury item. Their equivalent of the George Washington Bridge costs $45 to cross. Health care is free — which means you pay in time instead of money. Services are distributed only after endless stays in waiting rooms. (The author brought his son to an E.R. complaining of a foreign substance that had temporarily blinded him in one eye and was turned away, told he had to make an appointment.) Pharmacies are a state-run monopoly, which means getting an aspirin is like a trip to the DMV.

Other Scandinavian countries (Booth defines the term broadly, to include Nordic brethren Iceland and Finland in addition to Denmark, Sweden and Norway) raise other questions about how perfect the nearly perfect people really are. Iceland’s famous economic boom turned out to be one of history’s most notorious real estate bubbles. A common saying in Denmark about Icelanders: They wear shoes that are too big for them, and they keep tripping over the shoelaces.

The success of the Norwegians — the Beverly Hillbillies of Europe — can’t be imitated. Previously a peasant nation, the country now has more wealth than it can spend: Colossal offshore oil deposits spawned a sovereign wealth fund that pays for everything.

Finland, which tops the charts in many surveys (they’re the least corrupt people on Earth, its per-capita income is the highest in Western Europe and Helsinki often tops polls of the best cities), is also a leader in categories like alcoholism, murder (highest rate in Western Europe), suicide and antidepressant usage.

Their leading filmmaker, Aki Kaurismaki, makes features so “unremittingly morose they made [Ingmar] Bergman look like Mr. Bean,” reports Booth.

Finnish etiquette demands little in the way of conversation (the men, especially, speak as if being charged by the syllable) but much in the way of alcohol abuse. It’s considered poor form to leave the party when there is anything left in a bottle. Although their overall alcohol consumption is near the European average, they binge-drink more than almost any other country on the continent. Booze-related disease is the leading cause of death for Finnish men, and second for women.

The suicide rate is 50 percent higher than in the US and more than double the UK rate. Party guests, even at upscale gatherings, report that, around 11:30 at night, things often take a fighty turn.

It turns out that the “warrior gene” — actually the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, which is linked to impulsive behavior, violence and alcoholism — is especially prevalent in Finland. “Dark” doesn’t just describe winter in the Arctic suburbs, it applies to the Finnish character.

...

http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/sorry-libe ... t-utopias/

[Tyrannical]

How can such non-diverse racist white countries be so happy without the richness of multiculturalism?