This is alluring due to the fact that people in the United States aren't happy with their current living situation but really that it is Denmark and Sweden toping the charts. I feel part of the problem in the USA is the fact that they use so much of their money on the military and they don’t focus on helping those who can’t afford every day essentials.
Poverty has taken over the USA, simply because they would rather spend money on killing others than spend it on providing the necessary education for the American citizens. If these people were properly educated like those in Denmark they would be happier and therefore help the economy by generating new jobs.
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Abby
10/5/2013 06:11:07 am
A countries happiness levels are dependent on many factors. According to data from the OECD, these include housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance, and to some extent, financial well being. In my opinion, it is imperative that Canada be considered one of the ‘happiest’ countries for many reasons. Research has proven time and again that happy citizens are more productive, live longer, earn a more stable income, contribute more to society, and are shown to be more actively involved in their countries government and established systems. For our country, and any country to flourish it is imperative that we focus on the countries’ overall happiness as much as we seem to promote economic growth.
Recent studies have shown that northern European countries are in fact, the happiest countries throughout the world. What makes these countries so happy, and what can we then learn from them? In my estimation, happiness is not entirely reliant on financial wealth. Many countries have money in abundance and yet, still are not included anywhere near the top of the ‘worlds happiest countries’ list. For example, the United States is named under the 10 wealthiest countries list, but is not named in the top 10 happiest countries. This leads me to understand that even though we tend to promote economic growth, because we think it will ‘fix everything’. That is not the case though. I do not deny that economic well being is important for a country as well, but it does not dictate the countries overall happiness. In other words, money truly does not buy happiness. It seems that the happiest countries in the world are ones where citizens have proper, well paid, employment, are active in their communities and government actions and have strong social networks. Education also seems to play a key role in the overall happiness of the country. Places such as Sweden provide alternative education systems to ours, and as a result, students seem to be much smarter and more ‘switched on’ than anywhere else. These key factors distinguish countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden from the rest of the world.
In order for Canada to strive to be one of the happiest countries in the world, we need to make changes to our systems and the way Canada as a country, operates. For example, we cannot be deploying jobs to Japan, that are capable of being done in Canada. Minimum wage is also higher in top level countries, and employment rates are higher. When the majority of the population is employed, people develop competency and skills, and are more self satisfied than their unemployed counterparts. It is also imperative that Canada have a ‘transparent’ of government, or a government we can trust. In the happiest countries, such as Australia, 71% of people remarked that they do feel their government is becoming more trustworthy and representative of the people. In Uraguay, the president lowered his pay to minimum wage, and I think that as a result the country can trust that the president is serving the people for the right reasons. In many governments across the world, people do not feel that the government officials are there to serve and represent the people, but really, just to earn a multimillion dollar paycheck. In the happiest countries, Citizens are more involved in their government, and advocate change when they want it. Canada has all the potential to improve the whole countries happiness, if we act upon these changes we need to make, in order to develop a better sense of happiness throughout our country.
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Shayla
10/7/2013 01:48:24 pm
I think that some reasons people in happy countries are happy is because they have good education, can live healthily, comfortably and fairly. In Canada people are happy because they are educated which allows them to pursue anything they want to in life, they have access to free health care and therefore have the ability to live healthily, they are comfortable because they have jobs, homes, food, clothing and water and they have rights and freedoms thanks to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. All of these things create a happy environment for people to live in and result in happy countries.
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Sam
10/21/2013 08:36:48 am
I believe that the reasoning for the happiest countries to be happy is the fact that their economy isn't in dept, they have a funded health care, funded education and they are able to live with little worries. The reason that Canada is ranked 6th of the happiest countries in the world is the fact that we have a funded medicare, so if we do get sick we don't need to worry about having to pay to get better. Also we have a fantastic education system for people able to go to school, which helps us move forward in our life, and that we're able to build something out of ourselves. Also Canada is a happy country because we have freedoms and rights courtesy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But also the countries that aren't so happy, can come from the result of many reasons from poverty to unemployment and to illnesses as well. A major factor in the reasoning of happy to unhappy countries is the environment in which that the people live in.
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Jessica Kummer
10/21/2013 09:59:28 am
If you were to think of a list of the happiest countries in the world without looking at this list, you would more than likely think of different countries to be at the top rather than what is there. I think the reason for this is that the countries we would think to be at the top like the USA and Russia etc. is because we hear so much about them with things like the military and the freedom in the countries etc. And we don't hear much about Denmark and Sweden etc. but when you read about the countries and their individual governments, you can see the reasons for these countries you don't think much about, to be at the top of this list. For example the education system in Denmark is surely a reason for the happiness of the country. And the countries at the top spend their money on more important things than military, like schooling and health care and poverty etc. whereas the USA spend almost all of their money on the military, and with this money the entire country's poverty problem. When you think about it the list is very accurate, but could also be changed around very quickly if our governments changed their ways of spending money and making different laws.
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georgia
10/23/2013 11:10:22 am
I think that a huge reason why countries are not happy is because of poor health care. The governments seeking to improve the happiness of their populations should spend a higher proportion of their health budgets on mental illness, as the studies show that this is the number one leading cause of unhappiness. I believe this is why Canada is ranked 6th because we have free healthcare and do not have to stress about that factor.I think that everyone should be entitled to the basic right of health. People living in the US are not happy with their living conditions, and i think that part of the problem is that they are spending ridiculously unneccessary amounts of money on their military. The money that they are spending on their military could be put towards so many more important things for their country such as providing education for their citizens, better healthcare, everyday essentials and ending poverty (which would make their citizens 10 times happier than they are now). Instead, they are spending all of their time, energy and money on attacking other countries, and making the living conditions in the United States hell. Another huge reason for their unhappiness is low income, so putting money towards better education will help people get better jobs which will then result in a higher economy.
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Emma
10/27/2013 02:59:44 am
I think that the countries at the top of the list are where they are because they are focusing more on the needs of the people and not their military, economic growth, or big corporations. They are tending to the needs of their citizens which is the most important thing. The study states that one of the major factors that led to the happiness of the country was the freedom to make key decisions. In Canada and the top five countries in the rankings, everyone is allowed to live their life the way that makes them happy. They are not told what profession they are going to do or where they are going to live; they get to makes those choices based on who they are as a person and what suites them and their family's needs. Another major contributor to a country's happiness is mental health. If people aren't happy on the inside to begin with, then it's hard to overcome that. I believe that Canada has done a good job with talking about mental illness and that is why we are ranked sixth. However, I still think that there needs to be more awareness in schools and the society so that everyone is comfortable talking about it and getting help so they can be happy. I believe that the United States is ranked pretty low because they don't focus on what their citizens need. Their entire budget basically goes to the military and they leave their people to die of poverty and starvation. This obviously isn't the recipe for a happy country. I think to be a happy country you need free health care that is easily accessible, a small military, and a government that aims to get rid of poverty. This way, the people come first.
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Meghavi
10/28/2013 08:59:38 am
I think the countries that are at the top of that list is because of their government and it's services. A government that thinks about the citizens more then military, money, power and growth will have folks that will be happy. One of the biggest factors of keeping citizens happy is a good healthcare system. If the health of citizens are not good then a country wouldn't be considered as a happy country. Also, another factor would be having the freedom to live a life that you want to live in, without being bullied, forced and threatened. Another factor would be mental illness because if you are not happy from the inside then you are not happy no matter how big the smile is on your face. It seems that Canada and many of the Europeans countries have been talking a lot on mental illness because they have been ranked top 5 countries that are happy. Countries, such as, America are not on the list because their government only cares about a big military, being powerful and ways to gain big money. Therefore, to be a happy country you need healthcare that is free, a military to protect the country not to destroy another, laws that are fair, freedom and an overall good shelter, with lots of cooperation amongst the government and citizens.
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Braydon Hickey
10/30/2013 05:32:08 am
It is incredible that Sweden and Denmark are topping the charts but its because of what they do for their people. the reason why the US is so low is because they spend to much of their money and time on their military when they is really no need for more weapons and such. what they need to focus on is the well being of their people their people have to pay a heck of a lot for healthcare which makes them upset because they could be paying less. Another reason is because poverty has taken over the US because they don't care but they need to. The US also needs to stop getting involved in Foreign-Conflicts because once again that's money they could put towards helping their people. if they did these things maybe they would be hire on the list.
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Dawson
11/1/2013 02:12:52 am
If you were to think of a list of the happiest countries in the world without looking at this list, you would more than likely think of different countries to be at the top rather than what is there. I think the reason for this is that the countries we would think to be at the top like the USA and Russia etc. is because we hear so much about them with things like the military and the freedom in the countries etc. And we don't hear much about Denmark and Sweden etc. but when you read about the countries and their individual governments, you can see the reasons for these countries you don't think much about, to be at the top of this list. For example the education system in Denmark is surely a reason for the happiness of the country. And the countries at the top spend their money on more important things than military, like schooling and health care and poverty etc. whereas the USA spend almost all of their money on the military, and with this money the entire country's poverty problem. When you think about it the list is very accurate, but could also be changed around very quickly if our governments changed their ways of spending money and making different laws.
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Ryliegh
11/7/2013 09:59:32 pm
people are unhappy because this world they dont know if it is going to last or end with the goverment the chance of war and the over population and the stupid way we are making power if we dont change this could be the end thats y they are mad
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