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Mar

7

Happiness Study Reveals Better Health Formula And Bad Choices

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Some might have caught wind of this fascinating research when it was released in late 2006, but, it is worth visiting again and again, especially during these troubling times.

This is Part “1″of our multi-part World Happiness Study Series.

The happiness research basically was a survey of the degree of satisfaction with life and the environment based on data from 178 countries and 100 previous surveys by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the Latin Barometer, the Afro Barometer, the UN and the World Health Organization by social psychologist Adrian White from Leicester University in the UK.

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Have The American People forgotten the Declaration of Independence argued for certain inalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Some of the British Researcher’s survey emphasis were health conditions, welfare and education. Hence we forgot, but happiness is a primary motivator of human behavior. Oh and the Happiness Research was titled-A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being (SWB): A Challenge to Positive Psychology. Within this unique happiness research was developed the first published map of world happiness. Adrian White used responses from over 80,000 people about their subjective well-being (SWB), in order to design the “world happiness map“.
world_map_of_happiness.jpg
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Recently psychologists have pleaded for measures of subjective well-being (SWB) to form the basis of Government policy and the political assessment of a nation’s success (Diener, 2000). A very interesting parallel survey published also in 2006 by Easton found that 81% of the UK population agreed that the Government’s primary objective should be the creation of happiness and not wealth.
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And the winner - The happiest country in the world happens to be Denmark. Amazingly, more than 30 years Denmark has ranked first in European satisfaction surveys. The United States ranks 23 out of the 178 countries surveyed. What becomes apparent from this global map of subjective well-being (SWB) is that poverty is closely associated with a low score on the SWB scale and the bottom-rung countries. A nation’s level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels. Prosperity and education were the next strongest determinants of national happiness. “When people are asked if they are happy with their lives, people in countries with good healthcare, a higher GDP (gross domestic product), per capita, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy” stated Adrian White, chief researcher behind the study. He also stated “It is also notable that many of the largest countries in terms of population do quite badly, as far as happiness goes.” China came in No. 82, India ranked 125, and Russia was 167.
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1. Denmark - Pop.: 5.5 million, Life Expectancy: 77.8 years, GDP Per Capita: $34,600
2. Switzerland - Pop.: 7.5 million, Life Expectancy: 80.5 years, GDP Per Capita: $32,300
3. Austria - Pop.: 8.2 million, Life Expectancy: 79 years, GDP Per Capita: $32,700
4. Iceland - Pop.: 300,000, Life Expectancy: 80 years, GDP Per Capita: $35,600
5. Bahamas - Pop.: 303,800, Life Expectancy: 65.6 years, GDP Per Capita: $20,200
6. Finland - Pop.: 5.2 million, Life Expectancy: 78.5 years, GDP Per Capita: $30,900
7. Sweden - Pop.: 9 million, Life Expectancy: 80.50 years, GDP Per Capita: $29,800
8. Bhutan - Pop.: 2.3 million, Life Expectancy: 55 years, GDP Per Capita: $1,400
9. Brunei - Pop.: 380,000, Life Expectancy: 75, GDP Per Capita: $23,600
10.Canada - Pop.: 33 million, Life Expectancy: 80 years, GDP Per Capita: $34,000
11. Ireland - Pop.: 4 million, Life Expectancy: 77.7 years, GDP Per Capita: $41,000
12. Luxembourg - Pop.: 474,500, Life Expectancy: 79 years, GDP Per Capita: $55,600

The world chess board has just changed again. It can now be argued that these happiness measures are not perfect- but, they are the best we have, and these are the measures in which the European politicians are now talking of using to measure the relative performance of each country.

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There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people. However, when people are asked if they are happy with their lives, people in countries with good healthcare, a higher GDP per captia, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy.
It should be noted that European health care is most often described as a “single payer” system in which the economic model is government management of the financing and delivery of health care services.Additionally, the government in many European countries is the universal insurer of health care for all citizens, and the government insurance is financed by general taxation. Futhermore,there might be an interesting corelation to the historically high voter participation (some European countries have 80% unmandated voter turnout), that elects the politicians that create and manage these health care policies. This serious Universial Health Care discussion really needs to take place in the United States to complement the anticipated historic record high voter turn out for the next 2008 Presidential election. The U.S. will have a sizable forum eager for change.
Can you do this ?
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The measurement of something as intangible as Subjective Well-being (SWB), is not without anomolies. Schwarz & Stack (1999) have shown, for example, that temporary mood states can dramatically influence a participant’s response to SWB measurements. Closer review of the Happiness Study reveals many Asian countries, with their booming economies, crazy growth and top ranking in the world in terms of per capita income, access to education, and good healthcare…. didn’t make it into the top fifty in the survey.
Our2nd part of this World Happiness Study Series Expose will include some interesting “Mashups” guaranteed to get everyone talking.You won’t want to miss it. So subscribe!
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The complete 178 Country Happiness Study List -
DENMARK
SWITZERLAND
AUSTRIA
ICELAND
BAHAMAS
FINLAND
SWEDEN
BHUTAN
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
CANADA
IRELAND
LUXEMBOURG
COSTA RICA
MALTA
NETHERLANDS
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
MALAYSIA
NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY
SEYCHELLES
ST KITTS AND NEVIS
UAE
USA
VANUATU
VENEZUELA
AUSTRALIA
BARBADOS
BELGIUM
DOMINICA
OMAN
SAUDI ARABIA
SURINAME
BAHRAIN
COLUMBIA
GERMANY
GUYANA
HONDURAS
KUWAIT
PANAMA
ST VINCENT AND THE
UNITED KINGDOM
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
GUATEMALA
JAMAICA
QATAR
SPAIN
ST LUCIA
BELIZE
CYPRUS
ITALY
MEXICO
SAMOA WESTERN
SINGAPORE
SOLOMON ISLANDS
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
ARGENTINA
FIJI
ISRAEL
MONGOLIA
SAO TOME AND PERINI
EL SALVADOR
FRANCE
HONG KONG
INDONESIA
KYRGYZSTAN
MALDIVES
SLOVENIA
TAIWAN
TIMOR-LESTE
TONGA
CHILE
GRENADA
MAURITIUS
NAMIBIA
PARAGUAY
THAILAND
CZECH REPUBLIC
PHILIPPINES
TUNISIA
UZBEKISTAN
BRAZIL
CHINA
CUBA
GREECE
NICARAGUA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
URUGUAY
GABON
GHANA
JAPAN
YEMEN
PORTUGAL
SRI LANKA
TAJIKISTAN
VIETNAM
IRAN
COMOROS
CROATIA
POLAND
CAPE VERDI
KAZAKHSTAN
MADAGASCAR
SOUTH KOREA
BANGLADESH
CONGO REPUBLIC
GAMBIA
HUNGARY
LIBYA
SOUTH AFRICA
CAMBODIA
ECUADOR
KENYA
LEBANON
MOROCCO
PERU
SENEGAL
BOLIVIA
HAITI
NEPAL
NIGERIA
TANZANIA
BENIN
BOTSWANA
GUINEA-BISSAU
INDIA
LAOS
MOZAMBIQUE
PALESTINE
SLOVAKIA
BURMA
MALI
MAURITANIA
TURKEY
ALGERIA
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
ROMANIA
BOSNIA & HERZE
CAMEROON
ESTONIA
GUINEA
JORDAN
SYRIA
SIERRA LEONE
AZERBAIJAN
CENTRAL AFRICAN RE
MACEDONIA
TOGO
ZAMBIA
ANGOLA
DJIBOUTI
EGYPT
BURKINA FASO
ETHIOPIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
UGANDA
ALBANIA
MALAWI
CHAD
IVORY COAST
NIGER
ERITREA
RWANDA
BULGARIA
LESOTHO
PAKISTAN
RUSSIA
SWAZILAND
GEORGIA
BELARUS
TURKMENISTAN
ARMENIA
SUDAN
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
CONGO DEMOCRATIC
ZIMBABWE
BURUNDI

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