Wahoo! Guy Fawkes Day!
Anyways, I mostly do agree that in analyzing how a society deals with wealth and poverty directly correlates with a nation's health, and from there, happiness. Though there are many conflicting reports about the happiest nations in the world, the majority of nations which that are wealthy consistently find themselves higher on the happiness scale. There are, of course, exceptions. For example CNN describes Costa Rica as the happiest nation in the world, followed by Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam. This came as a great shock to me, but most other sources I used found contradictory results.
When nations are wealthy, standard of living typically is high. Remember, I said I mostly agree with the original statement. There are always exceptions. A nation's education system, employment rate, law enforcement effectiveness, and social equalities are examples of important factors which greatly contribute to a nation's standard of living. Typically, these can be achieved with a strong financial backing. When nations have the ability to better these areas, progress can be made, in turn leading to inevitable happiness. Northern European countries often find themselves at the top of the happiness indexes due some of the aforementioned factors. Despite having the world's highest taxes in many areas, Denmark is usually listed as the happiest country. Why? Because these taxes go back to benefit the people. When a country gets it's priorities straight, the people benefit and the country is healthier.
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But what about the United States? We are one of the wealthiest nations, but we have one of the biggest gaps between the poor and rich. You stated that a "nation's education system, employment rate, law enforcement effectiveness, and social equalities are examples of important factors which greatly contribute to a nation's standard of living." The US has a highly superior education system in the global scheme of things, and we are supposed to have social equality, even though that is not the case for some instances. Why is it then that some people in the US are SO poor with a terrible standard of living? I mean, I know it's probably nowhere near as bad as it is in say Africa or parts of Asia, but it is pretty terrible considering that we have many many multimillionaires.
ReplyDeleteYou also argued if nations have the capability to better the areas, progress will lead to happiness. Think about how slow progress was made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. There are still many problems there that have not yet been solved. So if we financially had the power to rebuild the houses and all that good stuff down in New Orleans, why wasn't progress made quicker?
Although I'm sure there are numerous examples that support what you blogged about, I just think you should have taken other examples into account!
I slightly agree with what Keara has to say, but I think the answers to her questions are in the simple fact that the US is not perfect. We have so many imperfections and while we are one of the wealthiest, we do not take that money and directly help the people. Places such as Denmark do. They have a system that takes the tax dollars and gives it back to help the people live. The US takes the tax dollars and attempts to help the people through public school funding and such, but also lacks in many other areas such as healthcare. I think it is important to recognize that the government and how they run those specific countries have a lot to do with the happiness and the gap between rich and poor. If you take what awrbi said at the end of his blogs once countries get their priorities straight they are happier. I think that statement clears up all questions about the US. Clearly we are still trying to set our priorities straight so we can have a more effectively run country that is healthier and happier.
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