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posted by janrinok on Monday March 19 2018, @09:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-clapping-for-us dept.

Common Dreams reports

Nordic countries with strong social welfare structures fared best, as they have in previous years, on the United Nation's annual accounting of global happiness--while the United States finished in 18th place, down four spots from 2017.

Finland was ranked number one on the World Happiness Report, compiled by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The country was joined by other Scandinavian nations--Norway, Denmark, and Iceland--in the top four, followed by Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.

[...] the United States finished in 18th place, down four spots from 2017.

[...] The drop followed President Donald Trump's first year in office, during which the majority of Americans reported disapproval of the country's top elected official, and hundreds of thousands protested his regressive policies on immigration, women's reproductive rights, and gun control--as well as widespread concerns that the president is blatantly profiting off his position in public office.

The past year also saw reports of America's widening wealth gap, with the average upper middle-class household holding 75 times more wealth than low-income families.

Trump's tax law, pushed through Congress despite the disapproval of 53 percent of Americans, only heightened the perception of many people that the government is intent on transferring wealth to the richest Americans while the majority live paycheck to paycheck.

The World Happiness Report ranks countries according to per capita GDP, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption levels.

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row in 2017, with researchers suggesting that the opioid addiction epidemic and inequality are related to the decline.

Reigning political ideologies in the highest-ranking nations contrast sharply with that of the U.S., noted the researchers.

The countries in the top 10 tend to "believe that what makes people happy is solid social support systems, good public services, and even paying a significant amount in taxes for that", said [Jeffrey D. Sachs, editor of the World Happiness Report].


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Monday March 19 2018, @04:13PM (12 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 19 2018, @04:13PM (#654965)

    I think it's time that we start rubbing the noses of the Republicans in the fact that: the happiest countries on Earth are strongly socialist.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @04:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @04:27PM (#654973)

    What do you mean, "start"? I've been doing that for years!

    Sadly, Republicans tend to not believe in polls, data, or facts in general, so the nose-rubbing is of limited effectiveness.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday March 19 2018, @05:29PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday March 19 2018, @05:29PM (#655016) Homepage
    But they aren't. They are strongly capitalist, and pro-entrepreneurial (that's where you own your business, not the state, and where you employ who you want, and they don't share ownership of the company with you simply because they work for it). They are strongly *socialised* - medicine, education, integrated transportation (participated in by private-ownership companies), etc. But that's completely different from *socialist*.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 19 2018, @06:53PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 19 2018, @06:53PM (#655062)

      They are strongly *socialised* - medicine, education, integrated transportation (participated in by private-ownership companies), etc. But that's completely different from *socialist*.

      Hmm. Well, the Republicans are against Socialized...ation, too. Except Social Security, ironically.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @08:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @08:46PM (#655114)

      At the same time, their labor unions haven't knuckled under.
      Their unions have managed to keep the Capitalists from clawing back every gain they have ever made in the legislature and in the courts (unlike USA).

      Back in the early 1980s, Sweden voted on a pseudo-socialist thing WRT "workplace ownership"
      It was more like an ESOP than a worker-owned cooperative.
      They recognized that for the sham it was and defeated it at the polls.

      They are strongly *socialised*

      Yeah. Another way to say it is that those places are "socially conscious".
      They haven't let greed and concentrated wealth completely take over.

      Now, I wonder how much better it would be there if they had a Maracora law [google.com] as Italy does.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @05:34PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @05:34PM (#655019)

    If everything is going great, you can spare a bit for others. You're trying to put the horse before the cart, thinking that socialism is the cause of happiness.

    Those countries aren't even that strongly socialist. Sure, they have a bit of a welfare state addiction, but they don't have the blurred lines between corporations and government that you'd find in a place like China, Venezuela, or Nazi Germany.

    When you have happiness to spare, the inherent misery of a little bit of socialism is quite tolerable.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Monday March 19 2018, @06:24PM

      by captain normal (2205) on Monday March 19 2018, @06:24PM (#655047)

      "...blurred lines between corporations and government..."
      Why did you leave out the U.S. of A.?

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @08:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @08:44PM (#655112)

      If you're going to mention that place, you should have included Alaska.
      As with Venezuela, the petroleum beneath their feet is considered part of "the commonwealth".
      Alaska Permanent Fund [wikipedia.org]
      Oh, and don't forget to mention the "communist" governor who oversaw that.
      Y'know, Sarah Palin.

      China

      That was a place you picked??
      In a comment where you used the word "socialism"??
      While the gov't is Authoritarian[1], China is extremely Capitalist.
      The way gov't and business are intertwined is almost to the level of USA.
      ...with concentration of wealth being the goal in both cases.

      [1] ...especially with Xi having just effectively declared himself Dictator for Life.

      Nazi Germany

      Fascism, where the Oligarchs completely own the gov't, is where USA (and much of the world) is headed.
      Studying the post-WWI decades should be something everyone is doing.
      We are getting a repeat of that and many are not noticing the similarities.

      Russia, having followed USA's Neoliberal/Oligarchical boilerplate after Drunky Yeltsin then Spineless Gorbachev allowed things to collapse, would be a better example.

      N.B. After WWII, under the USAian occupation, West Germany followed the Nordic model (strong unions; a strong social safety net) and today Germany is VERY successful.
      ...while in 1947, via a GOP-majority Congress, the Oligarchs gutted USA's unions via Taft-Hartley.
      ...and the "pro-labor" Dumbocrats have never clawed that back.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Monday March 19 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)

    by i286NiNJA (2768) on Monday March 19 2018, @09:48PM (#655147)

    If you do this they'll simply say that those countries aren't socialist.
    Then you'll say "OK I don't care what they are!! Let's be more like them!"
    Then they will make a few weak attempts to explain why we're not like those countries and it won't work here. Expect them to get racial here.
    Then they will keep going about socialism.

    I

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @10:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @10:36PM (#655161)

      Here's Socialism:
      Socialism is the collective ownership of the means of production by The Workers.

      Before Stalin, USSR was developing a pretty fair model of that.
      (The militaristic aggression of USA and other Capitalist nations had USSR diverting resources from public infrastructure, though they did pretty well on education and healthcare.)

      From the 1950s to the 1980s, under Tito, Yugoslavia had a pretty fair model of worker ownership.

      Socialism is NOT the opposite of Democracy.
      In fact, Socialism is Democracy extended to the workplace.

      Socialism is AN OWNERSHIP MODEL.
      Socialism is the opposite of Capitalism.[1]
      The Nordic countries are definitely Capitalist.
      ...so, not Socialist.

      [1] ...and Capitalism exists, and has existed, in places where there is no Democracy--or just the thinnest of veneers.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @10:31PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @10:31PM (#655159)

    Sure those fucking republicans they are totally in the wrong.

    https://i.redd.it/lh6yotgavqm01.jpg [i.redd.it]

    Oh wait the sad places are where the democrats have created basically shithole warzones of unemployment to make sure there is access to cheap labor and a pool of it desperate to work. Not much has changed in that party since it was founded.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 20 2018, @12:39AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 20 2018, @12:39AM (#655208)

      Not much has changed in [the Democrat party] since it was founded

      You've manage to completely miss FDR getting elected in 1932 and reelected 3 times.
      The Repugs had to pass a constitutional amendment to assure that he wouldn't be reelected yet again.

      FDR's New Deal pulled this country back from the abyss.
      ...and, once again, it's the Repugs who have continually whittled away at that success and brought us back to an unstable state.

      N.B. I won't go as far as to defend Dumbocrats of the last 4 decades, who are just as much in the pocket of the Oligarchs as are the GOPers.
      If they were truly The Party of The People, as they'd like you to believe, they'd push through a constitutional amendment making all election campaigns publicly-funded.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 20 2018, @03:37PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday March 20 2018, @03:37PM (#655424)

        The Repugs had to pass a constitutional amendment to assure that he wouldn't be reelected yet again.

        Well, no, not really. FDR died like a month into his fourth term, so I don't think they were too worried about him winning a fifth time.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"