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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].
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday March 19 2018, @05:25PM (2 children)
Obviously, we can't completely conclude what's going on in the heads of people we've never met.
I can tell you my unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton is largely something she brought upon herself:
- Her very hawkish foreign policy, under the advice of war criminal Henry Kissinger. For instance, her very prominent backing of the Iraq War.
- Her very close association with the banks that crashed the global economy in 2008.
- Her work negotiating "free trade agreements" which undermine US sovereignty and hurt the ability of American workers to negotiate better wages and working conditions.
- Her repeated lying about what she's actually accomplished. For example, her campaign made a big deal about S-CHIP, even though her description of how that had happened was completely at odds with everybody who worked Ted Kennedy's office (he was the one that actually made the bill happen).
- She and Bill are worth 9 figures. As Harry Truman put it, "An honest public servant can't become rich in politics." And both Hillary and Bill have a long history of selling out that goes back to their time in Arkansas.
- Her choice to continually associate herself with absolutely terrible people like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (friend to the payday lenders with all the intelligence and friendliness of a high-school cheerleading captain based on her emails), astroturfer David Brock, and Donald Trump.
- Her tepid-at-best responses to government policies that violate the civil rights of Americans, especially but not exclusively racial minorities.
- Her consistent description of policies created to benefit mothers as benefiting women or otherwise being feminist, when a big part of feminism is about women having value in their own right rather than having value primarily as mothers and wives.
There are a lot of female politicians I would have gladly backed for president. Hillary Clinton is not one of them. For instance, if the Democrats had rallied around Kathleen Sibelius (former governor of Kansas and Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services for most of his presidency), I would have been pretty happy with backing her, and I suspect she would have done better in the polls.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 19 2018, @07:55PM
Pretty much this entire list applies to me too. I voted for her entirely as a "hell to the fuck no, NOT TRUMP" vote but I dislike her entire dynastic family and I think they're arrogant and evil to the core. And you know what? if Trump keeps fucking up like this, but doesn't actually lead us into World War III, we may actually end up *better off* for having had him as President simply because it'll discredit the GOP for a solid 20-30 years.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 20 2018, @07:52PM
so hubby running guns and drugs with the bushes through mena, arkansas and her and cokehead hubby killing people all over arkansas didn't do it for you?