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@GuerillaOntologist You seem to be enjoying this...

@Matt_Noyes Self-righteous indignation is a hell of a drug...but also I feel like people need to show a bit more skepticism about how statistics are used in media, and I'm trying to encourage that in my own inimitably cranky way.

@GuerillaOntologist Not a criticism, just agreeing that happiness comes from many sources.

@Matt_Noyes It's me, not you. I've become increasingly aware of the fact that most of the time I post on here it's because I'm annoyed/upset about something and need to vent, but live with a cat who mostly just ignores me. I'm not sure it's healthy, you know? I'm torn...

@GuerillaOntologist Maybe try a 1:2 ratio of venting to sharing inspiration? You do a great job of finding and sharing stories of inspiring work on GEO.Coop. Our rule at Union Democracy Review was to tell stories of corruption and abuse from the standpoint of the people doing something about it, to build them up.

@GuerillaOntologist I do appreciate the curation you do here, of articles from Naked Capitalism and other sources.

@sofiav Probably something that was extensively A/B tested to ensure that Scandinavians would answer the highest. If someone asked me that, I would say, "well my expectations are extremely low...so 10?"

@GuerillaOntologist I'd assume they were trying to recruit me into an MLM scheme and refuse to answer...and possibly throw eggs at them

@sofiav It does sound much more sus than "on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you." I'd just assume a telemarketer and hang up as usual (you can save the eggs, as these were no doubt phone surveys).

@lwriemen @sofiav
Au contraire, your second link supports my reading (and that of the guy I linked to):

"Research conducted across countries around the world (Deaton, 2008) indicates substantial correlations between the Cantril Scale and income. This contrasts with measures of feelings or affect which appear to be more closely correlated with variables such as social time (Harter & Arora, 2008)."

Happiness is a feeling, and the Cantril scale aligns with income.

@lwriemen @sofiav
What I noticed most spending a lot of time in Nepal was how much happier everyone was, despite living without benefit of most modern conveniences. In my anecdotal experience, happiness and income are not closely linked, and the research would seem to support that.

And the larger point is this: making broad claims about something like "happiness" from a one question survey is not creditable. Their methods cannot support their conclusions.

@lwriemen @sofiav
Here's another give away: after describing the question on their site, the World Happiness Report people say this:

"This question is both democratic and universal."

Anyone doing globe spanning inter-cultural research and making claims to universality is not creditable, imnsho. Seemingly simple questions being taken in wildly different senses by people from different cultures is a trope in anthropological studies.

@lwriemen @sofiav
I think I know where you're coming from, though, if I may take a guess: you wish we had Scandinavian-style social welfare policies, and this report supports that policy preference (which I share). Assuming I'm on the right track with that, my problem is that they are serving to obscure the immense psychic toll living in a developed Western nation entails. There's a reason why Scandinavians have high rates of suicide, despite having relatively high Cantril scores.

@GuerillaOntologist @sofiav This is where your social time corresponding to income argument fails. In countries with social reforms, you get more social time regardless of income due to those reforms. My engineering colleagues in Germany had more holidays and limits on work time, but they had less income and wealth than I had. (20 year old data) Cultural aspects might account for higher suicide rates. e.g., less family support

@lwriemen @sofiav
That is true for industrialized Western countries (i.e. Germany vs US), but overall, people in Nepal have waaay more free time (often in the form of religious holidays) than in the US. Also still living largely in extended families in villages with the same families as neighbors going back centuries. I think all that has more to do with overall happiness than (most) any material conditions. YMMV.