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Happiness is on the Wane in the US, UN Global Report Finds (theguardian.com)
From a report on The Guardian, shared by five anonymous readers: Happiness in the US is declining and is expected to continue on a downward path, with Donald Trump's policies forecast to deepen the country's social crisis. The US has slipped to 15th place in the World Happiness Report 2017, produced by the United Nations. The world's economic superpower is well behind top-ranked Norway, although it remains above Germany in 17th place, the UK in 19th, and France in 32nd. Norway knocked Denmark off the top spot as the world's happiest country, with Iceland and Switzerland rounding out the top four. The report's authors stress, however, that the top four are so close that changes are not statistically significant. The next tier of countries are regular leaders in international happiness surveys: Finland is in fifth place, followed by the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. The world's "unhappiest" countries are all in the Middle East and Africa: war-stricken Yemen and Syria feature in the bottom 10, with Tanzania, Burundi and Central African Republic making up the final three.
I'd expect this trend to continue for at least the next 4 to 8 years, depending on how the 2020 elections go. Perhaps even longer than 8 years, depending on how much damage is done to the average citizens' lives due to selfish and thoughtless policy decisions and legislation.
It is well known homogeneous cultures, with as little income disparity as possible, report highest levels of contentedness.
The "most diversity makes things best" line of reasoning is never based in reality. Of course - the people screaming at the rest of the country for more diversity - Seattle and Portland - are some of the least diverse cities in the nation.
Friend, we don't have time for an 'amusing' Leader of the Free World; not anymore. It's not Amateur Night on Planet Earth anymore, things have gotten terribly, horribly real, and we really, really needed someone responsible, experienced, respectable, and capable of making thoughtful, insightful decisions on big and little issues alike. Sadly, we were not offered any such Candidate, not from any political party. So now we're stuck with this disgusting clown who is taking a chainsaw to just about everything. I'm not laughing. Neither are a lot of people who voted for the sonofabitch, either, and neither are a whole bunch of the GOP. Oh and by the way if you didn't figure it out, I am also not a Hillary or Trump supporter.
Oh and by the way I'd like to point out that Angela Merkel was called 'Leader of the Free World' by the press last week; that's about the worst black-eye the U.S. could possibly get so far as I'm concerned; the destruction of the credibility of the U.S. is now more or less complete. We're right down there, now, in the muck with so many African and South American countries, that seem to have a regime change every other week. It'll likely take many decades for us to fix our reputation, if it's even possible to do anymore.
If you read the actual report (figure 2.3, Changes in happiness from 2005-2007 to 2014-2016), you see that pretty much every first world nation except Germany and South Korea, and Norway and Switzerland (barely - within the confidence interval) have gone down in happiness, not just the U.S. The U.S. isn't even the first world nation with the biggest drop (Italy is, with Spain close behind).
A more fitting headline would've been "Happiness is on the wane in developed nations. Which might actually help explain the rise of nationalism in recent elections.
Or, maybe they just found a nice balance between capitalism and socialism, unlike the rest of the world.
Here in the USA, we are taught to "work hard and play hard", which is a recipe for getting worn out both physically and mentally. We have to keep up with the Jones' both at work and at home.
The "work hard and play hard" mantra could be said to be from the "protestant work ethic", or could be from plutocrat propaganda, being that working hard and playing hard gets the plutocrats the most profits: employees that work their asses off, then get home and spend their asses off on the plutocrats' hyped products and fashions.
Table-ized A.I.
"It's not Amateur Night on Planet Earth anymore, things have gotten terribly, horribly real,"
Poor people are living longer, earning more, eating more, all over the world. There are fewer large wars.Sure there's a few existential problems around, but you are living in a very successful century so far as homo sapiens is concerned.
Rather than argue about which side is the most evil/bad/mean/incompetent, let's agree the culture war in the USA is intensifying, which is a big source of tension in the USA for both sides. Remember, Texas talked of secession after Obama's election win.
Progressives want bigger gov't-backed safety nets and education opportunities, and conservatives believe that the private sector will make everyone's boat float higher if the gov't gets out of the way such that they don't need a safety net. (And there's also climate change, abortion, pollution, etc. etc.)
I believe heavy-trickle-down is kaflooey* in modern times, but realize I'm not going to change conservative minds on that such that both sides are stuck at an impasse, thinking the other side is getting in the way.
Perhaps it's time to split the USA rather than waste resources and anger on gridlock and seesaw politics.
* The benefits of increased economic activity from lower taxes and deregulation almost always have flowed UPward since about 1980, not outward. Automation, offshoring, and the death of unions changed things toward the 1% compared to pre-1980. Trickle down ain't work anymore; the TD model is broken and leaking oil.
Table-ized A.I.
There's NO evidence they commit more crimes than the average population, and even less by some estimates. Most come here to work; they can commit crimes in their home country better because they know the language, if crime were their goal.
The crime angle on that is a Fake Problem. Bad Trump.
Table-ized A.I.
No, average population, period.
If T wanted to reduce crime in general, which should be the logical goal, he should ask, what's the best way to reduce crime per federal dollars spent? I've seen no evidence that spending more fed dollars on JUST illegal immigrants is more effective than spending on it on general law enforcement, such as more FBI staff, systems, and/or more cops.
He's just obsessed with "outsiders" as a personality quirk. It's not based on any sound crime-solving monetary/resource allocation logic or model. I don't think he'd have the patience to review any such study or model with a critical eye. By all appearances, it's his gut tribalism instinct driving his decision process, not math, models, and logic. You are welcome to demonstrate he has given crime-fighting resource allocation some real thought...
Table-ized A.I.
he's actually putting the interests of the USA before those of foreign nations
Sure, if our interests are cutting education funding, cutting the EPA, cutting elderly food programs, cutting women's rights, cutting healthcare, and increasing racism and military spending. Nothing will make America great again like a generation of stupid kids, sick and hungry people, and weapons.