Happiest countries in the world and chemicals abuse

[JohnnyDoe]

The idiotic happiest countries list keeps handing trophies to Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

If you check real data you can see what is being rewarded: these countries sit at the top of global antidepressant consumption.
Iceland has years where over 12 percent of the population is medicated. Finland and Denmark run similar daily dose levels.
And the global situation keeps getting worse: https://www.voronoiapp.com/healthcare/The-Growing-Global-Reliance-on-Antidepressants-1183

Israel sitting in 5th place tells you everything you need to know about how broken the metric is. A country living under permanent conflict magically ranks among the “happiest”. Israel has one of the highest antidepressant consumption rates in the region, and the trend has been rising for years. Combine that with a population forced to normalize chronic stress, and you get the same statistical illusion you see in northern Europe.

The ranking model asks people how they feel without adjusting for the fact that millions are answering under SSRI modulation. The algorithm interprets chemical abuse as happiness, and this is why these countries keep winning.

A real happiness index would start from unmedicated emotional stability, low violent crime, metabolic health, food security, sunlight exposure and social cohesion. Weight these properly, and the Nordics fall fast.
Countries with low antidepressant load and strong social resilience rise, for example Costa Rica, Chile, Thailand, Vietnam.

Sure, antidepressants and the nanny state produce citizens who stay quiet and follow orders. Governments love populations that never push back and never ask why.

 

[Justit]

I’ve hardly ever seen people smiling on the street or in shops in Northern Europe, whereas in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy people generally appear happy and welcoming.

There’s no doubt that grey weather, constant rain, and long dark winters in the North contribute to a low mood and depression.

In the Caribbean, by contrast, people appear smiling, dancing, and engaging with each other openly all the time. Even though many don’t have much materially, they give the impression of enjoying life and experiencing far less stress.

Indonesia takes this even further: people not only smile, but often come across as genuinely warm, helpful, and caring.

For people who don’t travel much, a “country happiness index” can be a helpful overview (if it’s created accurately). But for those lucky enough to have traveled quite a lot and spent time in different regions of the world, such an index is largely useless, as personal direct experience gives a much clearer sense of the true happiness levels in each country.

 

[Paratore]

Happiness rankings are determined by analyzing comprehensive Gallup polling data from 149 countries in six particular categories: gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make your own life choices, generosity of the general population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.

Very little of that has anything to do with the emotion of happiness or how people feel, but according to the ideology of the socialist-backed organizations who create these sorts of rankings, these are things that are necessary for happiness so they are assumed as preconditions in the scoring.

 

[CEO]

I’ve hardly ever seen people smiling on the street or in shops in Northern Europe, whereas in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy people generally appear happy and welcoming.

At 7 am, Monday, still no Wine in the blood 😅 a kind of zombies or aliens.