Comment by SECProto
4 months ago
Also Canada, and I disagree pretty strongly with your post. Those two statistics have little bearing on happiness. Housing costs and healthcare access are much bigger concerns.
4 months ago
Also Canada, and I disagree pretty strongly with your post. Those two statistics have little bearing on happiness. Housing costs and healthcare access are much bigger concerns.
They are concerns, but not all that closely tied to happiness. Research shows time and time again that deep social connection is the key, if you will, to happiness.
And today's Canadians aren't that great at being social: "In 1986, about one in two Canadians saw their friends on an average day. Now, only about one in five do." — https://www.cbc.ca/radio/nowornever/maintain-friendship-conn...
> Research shows time and time again that deep social connection is the key, if you will, to happiness.
Research suggests it, but it does not show it. Psychological research is notoriously unscientific, with most studies not even being replicable because humans are extremely complex and it's basically impossible to design any kind of methodology that concretely controls for all variables, all the more so when we have things like 'ethics' that make it even harder to do controlled resaerch.
It is absolutely possible to be happy without deep social connection. I am an absolute misanthrope, I seriously hate every one of you bastards, but I'm pretty damn happy. The key to my happiness is that I live a comfortable life and have the freedom to spend it creating (and consuming) things I love - art, music, games, software. If I had to instead spend my days labouring on a farm, if I didn't have indoor plumbing and air conditioning, didn't have access to healthcare and stability and security, etc. I would be absolutely miserable. My happiness is only possible due to the great economic conditions and sensible policies of my country.
> It is absolutely possible to be happy without deep social connection.
Well, of course it is. No matter what you think it is that brings happiness to the general population, there will be at least someone who doesn't find happiness in it. There are always outliers.
> If I had to instead spend my days labouring on a farm
Farms are where you find the intersection of all cool tech. I have to wonder how someone who enjoys creating and consuming software would dislike working on a farm. But to each their own.
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I’m in tech and laboring on my farm are my happiest moments. I love to work hard with my hands. I absolutely hate working with what seems like pointless minutia on a computer but I’m good at it and can’t make a comfortable living farming so I do what I have to do. People are very different so I’m interested to see what their n is in each country. If it’s in the hundreds, this study means nothing.
> I am an absolute misanthrope, I seriously hate every one of you bastards, but I'm pretty damn happy.
Hey, it didn't say deep positive social connection.
Perhaps your hatred is what fuels you and keeps you happy :)
And another question from a ratbastard; have you ever spend a significant time labouring on a farm, or without indoor plumbing and/or air conditioning?
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> healthcare access
What healthcare access? My family has had to go abroad for surgeries twice in the last 3 years because there's no access to healthcare here...
And housing prices? My sister bought a mansion in Texas for less than a condo here.
Arguably these two data points are even worse for Canada. Either way our ranking is dropping.
I'm saying that data (not anecdotes) on those would've been better justification for your ranking.
That said, for most people, going abroad for surgery or to buy a home is not an option.
Yes. GDP per capita is data and a well known proxy for quality of life.
For example, declining productivity (which is what GDP per capita is) means a worse house price/income ratio, ie. worse affordability.