The Secret Is Out! Happiest Nation In The World Discloses Everything
In the United States, one of our constitutional rights is the pursuit of happiness. Strangely enough, despite this being a national goal, the U.S. ranks #23 in happiness according to research. The #1 spot belongs to Denmark. I would have expected a nation with tropical weather, more money, better health, or at least better food to rank #1 for that one trait that eludes many of us.
To be perfectly honest, when I started watching this video, I got a sudden urge to pack my bags, and head over to Denmark. Perhaps not to live there, but to see first-hand how a nation thinks in order to be the happiest in the world. Actually, that’s going on my to-go list right now.
The Danes consider themselves to be a very content people. They are well taken care of by their government in many ways. They are actually PAID to go to school, are provided with health care, child care, and many other benefits. The price of this is the government taking 50% for taxes.
One way to look at the Danes paradigm of themselves is that they are the underdog. When the underdog team loses, it isn’t a big deal, or a huge disappointment, because they weren’t the best team to begin with. However, when the underdog wins, it becomes a tremendous triumph, with all the reason to celebrate.
The key to Danish anti-depression is to have low expectations. They get really excited when things don’t go as bad as they thought they would. The trick is to remain ambitious, and strive for constant and never ending improvement, without being horribly disappointed when things don’t go as planned.
Posted by Alex Shalman in Happiness Project | February 23, 2008 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 10 comments
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“…one of our constitutional rights…”. We in the United States do not have any “constitutional” rights. Our rights are “…endowed by our Creator…” NOT granted, given or conferred by any “constitution”. The only country in the history of the world founded on such an idea. BIG difference.
Hi Alex,
I am fortunate to work with people from different kinds of cultures. I know someone who is married to a danish man and she often says things like, ‘if you don’t get what you want… want what you get.’ Not that I agree completely but there are times I think when life goes astray and you need an attitude like that.
Great post
Luke
The Danes get taxed 50%, yet they are the happiest nation. Combine that with the fact that most Danes are in the same income bracket, and there’s a message in there somewhere.
I used to take an attitude something like that. I expected the worst, or at least never to get what I actually wanted, and when things worked out in an acceptable way, I was always surprised.
It’s not an attitude I would actually want to return to…
I think another key to Danish happiness is the level of civic engagement and public cooperation in their society. Americans are hard-nosed individualists. We like our taxes low and our health care expensive. Denmark (and many other European countries) has taken the opposite tack of having higher taxes but lots of public goods.
This isn’t just a tax issue, but a reflection of culture. The Danes work together (and pay together) to solve problems. We could probably learn a thing or two from them!
My wife and I are travelling to Denmark next month on a whim. We decided it would be interesting to see the “happiest place on Earth.” I love their ideas about taxes, and income, etc. We’re the kind of people who realizes that money doesn’t make us happy. Things like movies, music, good conversation, being in nature or doing nothing at all can, in fact, make us happy. Having almost no vacation time is a huge reason why Europe, in general, has it better than us in the U.S. To me, divorce is never a good solution.
From what I can tell, I seem to identify with the Danes, which is why I think it’ll be a great trip.
When they showed the same program on 20/20 some months ago they also said that the Danes dont mind to pay high taxes, which go towards free education, medical care and even social activites, because of their immigration policies. 98% of people living in Denmark are Danes.
Being happy doesn’t always make you right.