SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 1) by i286NiNJA on Monday March 19 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)
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
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]