Before packing your bags and moving to one of the “happiest” countries, consider what you value most: the security and contentment provided by a high quality of life, but less emotional intensity; or warm, smiling, expressive people who exude positive emotions but can also blow off negative steam; or a meaningful life of high purpose in which people may not smile as much as in your hometown. An expatriate from Zimbabwe living in Finland lamented seeing fewer of the smiles of her native country. During a recent visit to Dubai, I encountered such a glowing smile when chatting with a barista from Kenya, fourth from the bottom in life satisfaction (134
th), but somehow sustaining a respectably healthy level of emotional happiness (50
th).
Americans with a rosy life satisfaction rank of 15th and emotional happiness of 56th can learn something from these less privileged but positive transformers.
1. Take a large number of data values from a list of countries.
2. Sort list in desired order.
3. Have computer solve for the weighting function which will turn #1 into #2.
4. Presto! Proof you were right. Just don't let anyone ask why you have 6 times the number of loaves of rye bread eaten per year is in your formula.
The WHR asked more than 100,000 respondents in 137 countries to “evaluate their current life as a whole,” with 10 being the “best possible life” and 0 the “worst possible.”
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true. - J. Robert Oppenheimer