.........  The Nordic countries all rank high in equality, meaning the inequality of happiness is virtually non-existent. Most of their populations consider themselves to be happy.

"And it turns out that people are happier living in countries where the happiness gap is smaller. And where is the happiness gap the smallest? Well, in the happy countries," said Helliwell to Euronews Next. ...........

...............  Data shows people are more satisfied with their lives in countries where there is institutional quality. That’s usually divided into the democratic quality and delivery quality.

The latter is the one more strongly related to citizen happiness, according to the WHR: good pensions, generous parental leaves, maintenance for the ill and disabled, free health and education, solid unemployment benefits, etc.

Quality government institutions are successful at making inequality levels very low, and that makes people happy because they feel they can trust their public institutions.     ............

..................  Researchers have come up with a strong link between progressive taxation - a tax rate that increases as the taxable amount increases - and people’s assessment of how happy they are.

Progressive taxation leads to happiness via public and common goods such as health care, education, and public transportation that the taxation helps to fund. And ultimately, you guessed it, trust. People trust the money will be used and distributed wisely.

Again, in more equal societies, people trust each other more. And social trust contributes to the building of better institutions.       ...............

.............  "We find people are much, much happier if they feel they're in an environment where people are going to watch their back. And it's really important to tell people that because they fail to understand all over the world how generous other people are," says Helliwell.

He says that the trust we place in others is in fact higher than what we take it to be. Lacking this trust makes us unhappy. Or at least, not happy like the Nordics.

Helliwell also says one of the reasons people underestimate the benevolence of their neighbours is because they don’t hear about it in the media.

"Which makes a case for good news and shows they are really important because it's what determines what you think of your neighbours," he said.         ...........

It is because of socialism.

Laugh till you cry wrote on Oct 11^th, 2024 at 2:03pm:


Actually, their culture and traditions are most closely related to and resemble Australia's.

John Smith wrote on Oct 11^th, 2024 at 4:38pm:


Well, you are an ignorant, thick yokel, so what would you know about history or culture or anything else? Nuffin'.
Go, sweep up.

Because they have a culture and traditions unlike Australia.

Where I am from, we have a large presence of people who settled the Central Qld region from Nordic regions.