The happiest countries are liberal countries

[Starlight]

A piece of quality-of-life legislation that was passed in New Zealand this week, which may be of interest to some here, was 3 days paid bereavement leave for prospective parents (both mother and father) who have a miscarriage or stillbirth. It passed unanimously. I was surprised to hear we are only the second country in the world to implement paid leave in the instance of a miscarriage, as it seems obvious.

It extends the existing bereavement laws (3 days paid leave for a close family member, 1 day paid leave for a friend or extended family member) to include miscarriages.

With regard to parental leave, New Zealand provides for 26 weeks of paid leave for new parents, and an optional 26 additional weeks unpaid leave (employers are required to have the job available for the person to return to after this time).

So I will add a reminder here that the US is almost the only country in the world (others are Papua New Guinea and Suriname) that provides no parental leave for new parents to care for their newborns (individual states and companies might choose to provide some, but none is mandated federally, and the majority of US workers don't have access to this).

It's interesting how Republicans in the US talk about having 'family values' but never seem to implement laws that value families.

[Ronson]

Even more interesting is that quite a few of those countries that claim to be 'happiest' also have quite high suicide rates.

Those governments have reported them "happy" as the bodies were discovered with smiles on their faces.

[Diogenes]

Those governments have reported them "happy" as the bodies were discovered with smiles on their faces.

And for Gondwanaland, I'm reminded of a Doctor Who episode called Smile where people were killed if they didn't at least pretend to be happy.

Here's the data Starlight didn't link and the report homepage

One thing that's interesting are the questions. For example:

“Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?”

If you live in the US, you're going to see ads to buy more products; self-help books; focus on a luxury lifestyle like with influences, celebrities, inside the lives of millionaires/billionaires;$1 billion lotteries; etc. So, if you have an concept of the "best possible life" that is influence by these things, your more likely to think of your own life as compared to instantly getting ~$500 million before tax.

“Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”

If you believe that there are systemic forces and "the man" is oppressing you", your concept of what freedom you have will be reduced.

“Is corruption widespread throughout the government or not” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses or not?” The overall perception is just the average of the two 0-or-1 responses. In case the perception of government corruption is missing, we use the perception of business corruption as the overall perception.

If you include the "old boys network" or other exclusive networking as corruption, that would influence your response.

Institutional Trust:The first principal component of the following five measures: confidence in the national government, confidence in the judicial system and courts, confidence in the honesty of elections, confidence in the local police force, and perceived corruption in business.

If you believe that police constantly kill unarmed civilians (which they don't as most police fatalities involve armed civilians) or that pot should be legal thus losing confidence in the judicial system, then that will affect the score as well.

[Psychic Missile]

And for Gondwanaland, I'm reminded of a Doctor Who episode called Smile where people were killed if they didn't at least pretend to be happy.

Here's the data Starlight didn't link and the report homepage

One thing that's interesting are the questions. For example:

If you live in the US, you're going to see ads to buy more products; self-help books; focus on a luxury lifestyle like with influences, celebrities, inside the lives of millionaires/billionaires;$1 billion lotteries; etc. So, if you have an concept of the "best possible life" that is influence by these things, your more likely to think of your own life as compared to instantly getting ~$500 million before tax.

If you believe that there are systemic forces and "the man" is oppressing you", your concept of what freedom you have will be reduced.

If you include the "old boys network" or other exclusive networking as corruption, that would influence your response.

If you believe that police constantly kill unarmed civilians (which they don't as most police fatalities involve armed civilians) or that pot should be legal thus losing confidence in the judicial system, then that will affect the score as well.

Everything you described is representative of what the questions are ostensibly asking. Of course people living in a society with a high wealth disparity will be less likely to think they're living their best possible life. Of course people would be less trustful of a justice system that prioritizes holding the less fortunate accountable for victimless crimes.

[Diogenes]

Everything you described is representative of what the questions are ostensibly asking. Of course people living in a society with a high wealth disparity will be less likely to think they're living their best possible life.

The US doesn't merely have a higher income equality than the countries in the top ten of world's happiest (excluding Bhutan), it has a culture of "keeping of the Jones' " . The pursuit of wealth is part of US culture that's not present in the aforementioned countries.

Of course people would be less trustful of a justice system that prioritizes holding the less fortunate accountable for victimless crimes.

From the New York Post:

A new survey commissioned by Skeptic Research Center reveals the extent to which the public is misinformed on the issue of police violence. Participants across the political spectrum in the nationally representative survey were asked how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. The results were revealing. Overall, nearly half of surveyed liberals (44 percent) estimated roughly between 1,000 and 10,000 unarmed black men were killed whereas 20 percent of conservatives estimated the same.

The Washington Post has a database of police fatalities from 2015 to present. In that time from, 6,163 people have been killed by police. Of that, where race and weapon status were known, only 135 meet that criteria. In 2019, that number, was 19. Ideological narrative skews perception of the justice system and thus the happiness survey results.

[Psychic Missile]

The US doesn't merely have a higher income equality than the countries in the top ten of world's happiest (excluding Bhutan), it has a culture of "keeping of the Jones' " . The pursuit of wealth is part of US culture that's not present in the aforementioned countries.

I don't think that's true, but even if it was, the wealth disparity has so much more impact on our country's well-being that it's comparatively insignificant.

From the New York Post:

A new survey commissioned by Skeptic Research Center reveals the extent to which the public is misinformed on the issue of police violence. Participants across the political spectrum in the nationally representative survey were asked how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. The results were revealing. Overall, nearly half of surveyed liberals (44 percent) estimated roughly between 1,000 and 10,000 unarmed black men were killed whereas 20 percent of conservatives estimated the same.

The Washington Post has a database of police fatalities from 2015 to present. In that time from, 6,163 people have been killed by police. Of that, where race and weapon status were known, only 135 meet that criteria. In 2019, that number, was 19. Ideological narrative skews perception of the justice system and thus the happiness survey results.

That's unrelated to the part you quoted, but if your argument is that this would affect people's response to a survey question about trust in the local police force, there's plenty to be concerned about outside of this issue, so without a quantifiable measure of the degree to which misconceptions inform responses, this is a distraction. As a wider point, ideological narrative by necessity skews all perception, so if you would dismiss a survey like this for such a reason, you might as well dismiss all surveys.

[Sparko]

I just learned that both Europe and New Zealand are months behind on the COVID vaccinations compared to the USA. Europe and New Zealand are still just starting up and probably won't get to most people under 65 until late summer. New Zealand with the population of a small state in the USA. Yay socialized medicine!

Meanwhile in the unhappy USA, we are opening up the vaccine in most places to 16 and older right now, and should have everyone who wants a vaccine vaccinated by May. Thanks President Trump.

[Roy]

I just learned that both Europe and New Zealand are months behind on the COVID vaccinations compared to the USA. Europe and New Zealand are still just starting up and probably won't get to most people under 65 until late summer. New Zealand with the population of a small state in the USA. Yay socialized medicine!

New Zealand is seeing less than one new COVID-19 case per day, and has had only one COVID death this year. They have had a total fatality rate of 5 per million. Distributing the vaccine there isn't exactly urgent.

(Europe is doing very badly though, and is well behind both the US and the UK. I make no excuses for them, not least because they're threatening to block UK vaccine distribution).

Meanwhile in the unhappy USA, we are opening up the vaccine in most places to 16 and older right now, and should have everyone who wants a vaccine vaccinated by May. Thanks President Trump.

Meanwhile, in the unhappy US, the per capita fatality rate is increasing by 5 per million every three days. Thanks President Trump indeed.

[Sparko]

New Zealand is seeing less than one new COVID-19 case per day, and has had only one COVID death this year. They have had a total fatality rate of 5 per million. Distributing the vaccine there isn't exactly urgent.

(Europe is doing very badly though, and is well behind both the US and the UK. I make no excuses for them, not least because they're threatening to block UK vaccine distribution).
Meanwhile, in the unhappy US, the per capita fatality rate is increasing by 5 per million every three days. Thanks President Trump indeed.

infections lag behind the vaccines because it takes up to a month to be protected after the first shot, and deaths will lag even further since they lag infections by a couple more weeks. We are just now starting 30 and older in my state, but should be 16 and older in a week. 50 and older are just now getting their second shots. The infection rates and deaths have dropped significantly since January when the vaccines started. There is a very slight uptick in the last week or two, but that will drop further as more get vaccinated. And yes, thank you Trump, who got the vaccines approved in record time, and now the US is leading in vaccinations despite our evil health care system while the rest of the world waits in line because of socialized health care and bureaucracy.

[Starlight]

I just learned that both Europe and New Zealand are months behind on the COVID vaccinations compared to the USA. Europe and New Zealand are still just starting up and probably won't get to most people under 65 until late summer. New Zealand with the population of a small state in the USA. Yay socialized medicine!

I haven't been following what's been going on in Europe on the subject. It would have zero to do with 'socialized medicine' which refers to how the hospitals are funded. It's governments making deals with pharmaceutical companies that affects vaccine rollout speed, not the hospitals themselves.

In New Zealand, because we have no COVID here, the decision was made and publicly announced that we wouldn't try to be at the front of the queue for vaccines because it wasn't morally justifiable to take precedence over other countries where people are dying. Our concern is only economic (our borders are shut to tourists). The government's decided to therefore just go with the best vaccine, and tolerate a slower delivery, so it will be ~6 months til the population is vaccinated, but we have been living ~100% normally the vast majority of the pandemic anyway because there is no Covid.

Meanwhile in the unhappy USA, we are opening up the vaccine in most places to 16 and older right now, and should have everyone who wants a vaccine vaccinated by May. Thanks President Biden.

Fixed that for you. I'll agree with you that Biden has done a very good job with the vaccine roll-out.

There do seem to be weekly headlines though about just how bad pandemic management got under Trump, and that even at the time when we thought he'd dropped the ball, that the worst of it was still being kept from the public.

[Sparko]

I haven't been following what's been going on in Europe on the subject. It would have zero to do with 'socialized medicine' which refers to how the hospitals are funded. It's governments making deals with pharmaceutical companies that affects vaccine rollout speed, not the hospitals themselves.

In New Zealand, because we have no COVID here, the decision was made and publicly announced that we wouldn't try to be at the front of the queue for vaccines because it wasn't morally justifiable to take precedence over other countries where people are dying. Our concern is only economic (our borders are shut to tourists). The government's decided to therefore just go with the best vaccine, and tolerate a slower delivery, so it will be ~6 months til the population is vaccinated, but we have been living ~100% normally the vast majority of the pandemic anyway because there is no Covid.

Fixed that for you. I'll agree with you that Biden has done a very good job with the vaccine roll-out.

There do seem to be weekly headlines though about just how bad pandemic management got under Trump, and that even at the time when we thought he'd dropped the ball, that the worst of it was still being kept from the public.

All Biden did was continue the program Trump started. Without Trump, there wouldn't even BE a vaccine approved yet. The whole world owes him thanks for Operation Warp Speed.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

All Biden did was continue the program Trump started. Without Trump, there wouldn't even BE a vaccine approved yet. The whole world owes him thanks for Operation Warp Speed.

A display of an excellent sense of humour.

[Roy]

And yes, thank you Trump, who got the vaccines approved in record time, and now the US is leading in vaccinations despite our evil health care system while the rest of the world waits in line because of socialized health care and bureaucracy.

You're doing well in the US, but you aren't leading. Israel, Chile, the UA and the UK (yay!) are doing better. It's one of the few good things the current UK government have managed.

[Sparko]

You're doing well in the US, but you aren't leading. Israel, Chile, the UA and the UK (yay!) are doing better. It's one of the few good things the current UK government have managed.

If you take into consideration the population differences, the USA is way ahead of everyone.

0-vaccines.jpg

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/c...d-vaccinations

What phase (age group) is the UK on right now?

[Roy]

If you take into consideration the population differences, the USA is way ahead of everyone.

The chart you posted shows the total vaccinations, not the per capita vaccinations. It does not take population difference into consideration.

This is the chart that does:
vaccines.PNG