- World Happiness Rankings
Worldly happiness can be termed as an index for measuring the human well being of the various nations of the world; a concept that was introduced in 2006. The process of comparing happiness across different cultures of the world is a rather complicated exercise. Different researchers and scholars in the field of happiness and economics have been looking for ways of measuring happiness across cultures and among individuals. Researchers have even devised a Happiness world index dubbed “Happy Planet Index (HPI)”. According to the researchers, “The index measures the well being of people and its possible environmental impacts” (Veenhoven 34). The index is designed to award progressively better scores to countries of lower ecological footprints when compared to those of higher footprints. The index was devised as a move to challenge well-established countries’ development indices for instance the GDP and the Human Development Indices that have been proven to assume the sustainability factor. GDP has been seen to be inappropriate especially due to the fact that most people aim at achieving happiness and health as opposed to being wealthy.
Americans do not rank as the happiest people on the planet, but stand in a considerably competitive position, 17, out of the 254 nations in the world’s happiness ranking.The United Nations’ World happiness report released recently indicate that Denmark, Norway and Switzerland rank as the top three happiest nations of the world. According the HPI. “The bottom of the ranks lies nations like Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic; all of which belong to the African continent” (Veenhoven 34). The rankings are based on the manner in which people rate their general satisfaction with life rather than their personal feelings at a given time. The ranks indicate that as much as economic conditions are an important part of most world nations, factors such as social support, freedom and life expectancy are important too. The UN report argues that human happiness is a vital ingredient in comparing a country’s progress. America’s low rank as compared to Denmark has pressured the government to adopt policies that provide the things that really matter to Americans.
According to the report’s co-editor Jeffrey Sachs, the reason behind the low rank of America in the Happiness ranking is the “mediocre” life expectancy of Americans (Veenhoven 35). In addition, the limitation of freedom to make free life choices by America is one of the key reasons behind the country’s drastic drop in the world’s happiness rankings. America dropped from 11th position to the current 17th position. This UN happiness rank report testifies that mental illnesses like depressions and mild anxiety are some of the key causes of unhappiness in the world. The report says that less than 30% of the people in wealthy countries are under treatment for mental illnesses.
What is rather striking is the fact that Denmark and most of the other countries ahead of the US in the happiness rankings have a lower per capita than the United States.This sharp contrast implies that money is not everything. Among the factors where the US scores lowly include: low government corruption, strong social support network, good health and high philanthropy of the citizenry. The US may be happier than 130 other nations in the world’s happiness rank, but one feels that the United States have failed to turn their natural resource and productivity to the best possible use. The social fabric in the United States is diminishing with social trust decreasing over the years. Washington is said to be full of corruption while the nation spends too much on health care.The United States is coupled with widespread social inequalities that form part of the happiness index ingredients. The nation seems to have gotten richer but unhappier and the 17th rank in the Word’s Happiness rank should be a wakeup call for the nation.
Wealth and economic policy are not part of the factors that make Denmark happier than the United States but rather the lower level of corruption, strong social support in the nation and good social ethics that does not stress on creating wealth as the key to life. It may be argued that Denmark and the other top nations in the ranks pay more taxes than the US citizens do, but the fact that remains is that “The taxes do not bring down the nation” (Gardner 67). As the report indicates, the United States government must concentrate more on the happiness and welfare of its citizenry, and thus reduce its attention on gaining wealth if the US is to be as happy as Denmark or the other Scandinavian nations ranked at the helm of the world’s happiness rankings. The federal government needs to recognize that their purpose is not to create comfort to politicians, or serving the lobbying groups but rather to address the rather important issues of the welfare of its citizens.
- GINI index
The index estimates the extent to which a country’s income and consumption expenditure distribution deviates from the equal distribution of such resources at the individual and household levels. According to Sonali, “This index assesses the areas between the hypothetical line of absolute equality and the Lorenz curve” (Sonali 75). A Gini coefficient of 0 implies perfect equality while that of 1 shows perfect inequality. In the year 2011, the Gini coefficient for the United States was 0.475. This was slightly higher than the 2010’s rank of 0. 469. The Gini index went up in 20 states last year including New York. The ILO report gives the US a Gini coefficient of 0. 477 which lean almost halfway to the inequality extreme whereby one household gets everything while everyone else gets nothing. In comparison, the other countries used by the study gave Gini values between 0.2 and 0.35. The report says that inequality in America is not only high but seems to be on a rising trend. The 2008 global financial meltdown saw America rank as one of the nations in which income inequality rose and has been rising ever since.
(Veenhoven)
A look at Denmark and France reveals that these two nations had considerably lower levels of income inequality right from the start. By the year 2011, Denmark saw its income inequality rise by a margin of 0.2. In the same year, the United States recorded an inequality of 0.463 right before the recession with the inequality reaching to a figure of 0.477 in the year 2011.
The middle class was the worst hit by the inequality in America though the middle class decline began before the onset of the global financial meltdown of 2008. Each year sees fewer and fewer Americans “ Qualify as middle class and those who qualify tend to experience diminishing incomes” (Veenhoven 37). However, in Denmark and France, the middle class seems to have held its position in the last several years. Nonetheless, Norway ranks as the nation that has the largest middle class with 0% of the population fitting the definition of a middle class.
- Relationship between equality and happiness in Denmark
Economists have for a long time battled with ascertainingwhether equality has anything to do with the happiness of a country.In my opinion, equality has nothing to do with happiness of a nation. Evidence at household and national level indicates that Denmark is happier than their Chinese counterparts but in general, happinessonall levels indicates that income and happiness go hand in hand. A classic example would be that “ Rich Denmark is much happier than a comparatively poorer China” (Ilo 30). Danes may indeed be happier than their Chinese counterparts. In general, the happiness gap between the most satisfied and the least seems to indicate a weak link with income inequality as indicated by the Gini coefficient. This may seem a little odd since most people tend to associate inequality with misery. From the diagrambelow, one can discern that the income equality levels have nothing to do with happiness and satisfaction.
(Ilo 33)
The citizens of Denmark consider themselves as part of the happiest lot in the world’s population. The type of career or job one has does not matter; whether one is a lawyer or a garbage collector, what seems to matter is that one is happy. In my opinion, if one thinks they are happy and satisfied with the life they lead, then it does not matter the amount of money they earn hence the income disparities have nothing to do with such individuals leading a happy life. When one is happy regardless of their income levels, they will be in a position to do things they like and live longer regardless of the amount of money they have.
- Leveling mechanisms in Denmark
The long history of the country’s equality draws the attention of many. The government is able to effectively combine social justice and economic performance. Denmark performs well where income inequality reduction is involved. According to Lee. “Studying long stretching trends of income inequalities in the Danish nation would reveal that wealth, tax and incomes have a long history” (Lee 89). The country has maintained a considerable stable tax system with income tax being introduced at national level at around 1903 . This particular system remained operational up until the 60s. Since the 60s, the government has instituted a number of amendments to the tax system to ensure it remains effective and serves its main purpose of wealth redistribution and income equality. Rich data on taxation matters still exist under the roof of one agency: Statistics Denmark. The practice of allowing a single agency to have the sole custody of all the tax records ensured stable tax formats and publications. Today, tax transfers help reduce the overall national income inequality. About 75% of the equality achieved by the government is achieved through tax transfers. Taxation as a leveling mechanism is comparable to the ceiling and floor method applied in the traditional Ju/’hoansi culture . In the culture, a ceiling was the limit beyond which one could not accumulate wealth and power while the floor was the lowest one would go in terms of wealth and power. Similarly, the tax system has lower and upper limits. Denmark employs a leveling mechanism of eliminating product market regulations to suppress competition and thus reduce labor income inequality through boosting employment.The government of Denmark employs a double dividend policy since such policies tend to significantly reduce income inequality while boosting the national long run GDP per capita. Examples of such policies include, reducing dualism into the labor market, promoting immigrant integration into the national labor market, facilitating the process of human capital accumulation and lastly encouraging female participation in the labor market.
- Leveling mechanism for the United States
On self reliance, individuals in the United States could adopt the ceiling floor leveling mechanism. For instance, when an individual experiences difficulties e.g. in carrying out a business or any other form of individual efforts, the society around him should be willing to give him a hand in whatever means they can afford. The society members could offer help in the form of finances to help boost the business of their fellow businessmen. On the other hand Lee argues that “when a particular business in a given industry accumulates too much wealth, such a business should redistribute such wealth to the society and other businesses through a corporate social responsibility mechanism” (Lee 94). This form of leveling will ensure that individuals constantly progress and do so at a uniform rate.
With regards to progress, the society could assist each other through sharing brilliant ideas with other individuals. A shared idea tends to add improvement suggestions to a weak brilliant idea. Some individuals may possess very brilliant ideas but due to the lack of moral and technical backing, their ideas end up being just that; ideas. When one shares his ideas with a colleague, the two are able to gang up and evaluate other new possibilities that one might have overlooked. This helps improve on the idea and thus make better informed decisions, thereby increasing the chances of success.
Section A of the paper discusses the world happiness ranks defining and explaining how word happiness rankings are done. Section B discuses the Gini Coefficient index of income disparities while section C talks about the link between equality and happiness in relation to Denmark. Section D discusses the various leveling mechanisms used by Denmark to ensure equality relating to these traditional leveling mechanisms (Lee 90) . Section E. discuses the applicable leveling mechanisms that the United States could apply in various aspects such as self reliance and other aspects of the society.
Work Cited
Bhattacharya, Sonali. "Relationship between Three Indices of Happiness." Journal of Human Values. 16.1 (2010): 87-125. Print.
Brean, J. Success can’t just be measured in dollars and cents.National post, Canada.1998. Internet source.
Dutta, Indranil, and James Foster. "Inequality of Happiness in the U.s.: 1972-2010." Review of Income and Wealth. 59.3 (2013): 393-415. Print.
Gardner, Gary T, Thomas Prugh, and Linda Starke. State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy : a Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.
Ilo: U.s. Inequality Now Literally Off the Chart. , n.d.. Internet resource.
Lee, R.B.The Dobe Ju/'Hoansi (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology). Wodsworth, US: Nelson education, 2013. Ebook.
The Happy Planet Index: An Index of Human Well-Being and Environmental Impact. Washington, DC: Friends of the Earth, 2006. Print.
Veenhoven, R. World Database of Happiness. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1998. Internet resource.
