I don't know the hell happen to my font page, but because I'm at my happiest time of my life.....and there seems to be a few very un-happy members here on TF........lol...........

Just finished watching a session on 60 Minutes......about the happiest people in the world, live in Denmark!

The goverment will pay you to go to school, as long as you wish with no costs.........

Health care is provided for all, with no costs............

Seniors are all taken care of..........with no costs...........

Day care for Children are paid for with no costs............

The marjority of the people work 37.5 hrs per week........

6 weeks of paid holiday time...................

People are happier there with less stress about their financial worries....

They all live a moderate healthy lifestyle...............average per male lifespan is about 75 years

average per female lifespan is 80 years....

The only downfall that Americans see is a 50% tax from the wages..........

If all of this is true, it sounds like a great setup for the Danish people...........

I'm curious to get a few comments from any Danish citizens, or people that have experienced living in Denmark before............pros and cons??

It's my experience that the people who have the most or best of something have no idea what they actually have.

(until it's gone)

Secondly, the University of Michigan's World Values Surveys (WVS) has compiled data on the happiest countries in the world for over 20 years. Their results are considered the most authoritative by happiness researchers.

When individuals were asked:

"Taking all things together, would you say you are: 1. Very happy, 2.  Rather happy, 3. Not very happy, or 4.  Not at all happy?" countries achieved the following rankings...

1. Nigeria

2. Mexico

3. Venezuela

4. El Salvador

5. Puerto Rico

When individuals were asked the above "happiness" question and the results were combined with the  following question: (On a scale of one to ten) "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?" a ranking of "subjective well-being" for the following countries was achieved...

1. Puerto Rico

2. Mexico

3. Denmark

4. Colombia

5. Ireland

6. Iceland

7. N. Ireland

8. Switzerland

9. Netherlands

10. Canada

11. Austria

12. El Salvador

13. Venezuela

14. Luxembourg

15. U.S.

16. Australia

17. New Zealand

18. Sweden

19. Nigeria

20. Norway

21. Belgium

22. Finland

23. Singapore

24. W. Germany

25. France

26. Argentina

27. Vietnam

28. Chile

29. Indonesia

30. Philippines

31. Taiwan

32. Brazil

33. Spain

34. Israel

35. Italy

36. Portugal

37. E. Germany

38. Slovenia

39. Japan

40. Czech Rep

41. S. Africa

42. Croatia

43. Greece

44. Peru

45. China

46. Morocco

47. S. Korea

48. Iran

49. Poland

50. Turkey

On the World Database of Happiness you will find a list of average happiness in 90 nations in the 1990s. You will then see a list that is based on average responses to a question about life-satisfaction as rated on a 0 to 10 scale.

The 10 highest averages are observed in:

8,0 Denmark

8,0 Malta

8,0 Switzerland

7,8 Iceland

7,8 Ireland

7,6 Canada

7,6 Luxembourgh

7,6 Netherlands

7,5 Mexico

7,5 Sweden

The lowest score was observed in:

3,3 Zimbabwe

Go figure !!

marc: good info...........well denmark is up there.......so the news story seems to be true somewhat to %'s.

lady: haha maybe that's why the students are so happy? lol

Marc has done his homework.

very interesting.

still I wonder why my default mood is depression?

Would it improve if I moved to El Salvador?

PJack: why settle for anything but the best? Move to Nigeria. Woo-hoo! happiness could be yours!

Charisma_Man: I very much doubt her happiness is anything like the happiness of the 'common folk' of Denmark, while she is living in a palace and getting her bum wiped for her.

The famous quote "Why not let them eat cake?" comes to mind.

Call me a cynic, if you like ;-)

Here's some more interesting ***-bits about happiness to chew on...

- Americans consider happiness more important to them than money, moral goodness, and even going to Heaven.

- Americans are, on average, only 69 percent happy.

- The world population is, on average, less than 65 percent happy.

- 37 percent of the people on Forbes list of Wealthiest Americans are less happy than the average American.

- At any given time, one forth of Americans are mildly depressed

- 14 percent of the nations on Earth are less than 50 percent happy.

- Happiness Increase Experiments published in peer review journal have empirically demonstrated that individuals can be trained to be 25 percent happier through various training programs in from two to ten weeks.

- All demographic variables combined, including age, sex, income, race, and education, are responsible for only 15 percent of the difference in happiness levels between individuals.

- American Children feel happy 52 percent of the time, neutral 29 percent of the time, and unhappy 19 percent of the time.

- Americans' personal income has increased more than 2 1/2 times over the last 50 years, but their happiness level has remained the same.

- Americans earning more that $10 million annually are only slightly happier than average Americans.

marc:

well according to your list, the USA is # 15th..............which means if you go down the list to # 50, you wonder if those other countries and their %'s fall in the same categories better or worse?

doing my part for the 25%

- At any given time, one forth of Americans are mildly depressed

yours,

P Jack

hey... dont shoot the messenger :-)

Im just passing on what i found with a little research. And since most of the studies are done by Americans, they tend to be American-centric.

Decypher it as you wish.

These are the 2 that I found most interesting though...

"The world population is, on average, less than 65 percent happy."

"Americans earning more that $10 million annually are only slightly happier than average Americans."

I would guess that last statement would apply whatever the nationality. Money doesn't buy happiness. But rather, it makes ones unhappiness less painful...lol

afool: i guess your butt still hurts from the bike ride? lo

what?

doing your part to contribute......25% of americans mildly depressed.........meaning, you are still too tired from the bike event, which you titled your butt still hurts!! lol

I saw the 60 minute show. Danes value friends and family life more than money and have an extensive system of government covered social services. I think that they said that average Dane pays 50% in taxes, but I would guess that the affluent pay more. In USA, many self employed people in many states end up paying 50% or higher in taxes (boo).

Nikki, you are expert here, what do you think?

Sounds pretty much like in France! I've been paid to study (in France and abroad), I don't pay for medical cares, I work 37,5h/week for 7 weeks of paid vacation per year...

What is incredible is that French people don't understand how lucky they are and how happy they would be if they could just stop complaining for every thing they have... *sigh*

When I go abroad although I enjoy and love certain places nothings like home.

But gotta be honest.don't think I'd be completely happy where ever I lived,maybe it's human

nature to find inadequacies.

Just a point I don't know about but do these countries that pay all take refugees and take

in a lot of immigrants that don't work?

And do they let employers sponsor workers in?

Denmark is a nice country. My best friend lived there for a couple of years. I think I could live there, but I really prefer Holland over Denmark. I think people are more relaxed in Denmark though..

It sucks that Christiania doesn't exist anymore...

i really dislike it when the freaking pc does this............i started with yuri, bj, damien, and nicky down the line....and ending with a few paragraphs of questions and my thoughts to you all, and then you can't submit your comments!!! damn.........i'll have to get over my frustrations at this very moment!!! ****!!!

Jai yen yen Eddie... lol