All the while, Americans’ expected future happiness remained high: In five surveys since the pandemic began, between 66 and 69 percent of respondents said they expected their life satisfaction to be an ‘8’ or above, five years into the future — higher than before the pandemic.
— from an article by reporter Ryan Bacic in the Washington Post, March 23, 2021
I’m as happy as I’ve ever been, although I’m still not happy enough.
Or rather, I’m still not as happy as I could be. And maybe, not as happy as I’m going to be, in five years.
The 2021 Official World Happiness Report — the ninth such report sponsored by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network — was written by a group of Canadian economists, which might make us suspicious right from the git-go, knowing how much beer is consumed in Canada. But it’s the only 2021 happiness report I’ve been able to find. So let’s just run with it.
You can learn more about the 2021 World Happiness Report here. Or you can be satisfied with my thoughtful analysis here in the Daily Post. Whatever makes you happy.
The economists looked at levels of happiness in 149 countries around the world, and our Daily Post readers will no doubt be wondering, “How did the United States fare?” Like most of you, I live in the United States, and whenever I’m presented with a statistical list of world countries, I quickly scan the list looking for the good old US-of-A. To find out, for example, how rich I am… or how well-educated I am… or, in this particular case, how happy I am.
A list of 149 countries is a pretty long list, so the authors of the report showed, on their website chart, only the first 19 counties — the 19 counties that they found to be the happiest. (You had to scroll down to find the rest of the less-happy counties. Mostly incidental countries that we Americans don’t worry too much about.) The US barely squeaked onto the “official” chart, at Number 19.
Right away, we notice the authors put Canada (Happiness Rank 7.103) ahead of the US (Happiness Rank 6.951). A little conflict of interest there, folks? I personally don’t think it’s fair, to allow a group of Canadian economists to put their country at Number 14, and leave us down at Number 19.
On the other hand, maybe we’re not drinking enough beer?
(We might also note the Scandinavian Countries — Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden — where people seem to be laughing their heads off. They all drink vodka.)
Numbers are funny things. For example, if you show everyone an “official” chart that starts at Number 1 and continues down to Number 19, you’re going make the United States look bad. But if you start the chart at Number 19, then things look better. A lot better.
Except that the counties that we beat out, are not that impressive. Most of them don’t even have any major league baseball teams. How can any country be truly happy, without baseball?
But sports teams aside, much of the 2021 report seems to be focused on one very specific point, which the authors struggled to explain using various economic theories and postulates. How could the world’s happiness levels, they asked, be so similar to the previous eight Official World Happiness Reports — when everyone has just come through a full year of COVID lockdowns?
How could the people of the world still express continued feelings of happiness, following 3,552,158 confirmed COVID deaths worldwide?
I think part of their confusion relates to a typically pessimistic attitude among economists, which leads them to see the glass as half empty. They apparently forgot to consider that 152,850,025 people are confirmed to have recovered from COVID. If that’s not a reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is.
And, we have toilet paper again.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.