http://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2082210/money-cant-buy-you-happiness
Some coincidences are simply too delicious not to savour. Last week offered a marvellous example. Within days of the United Nations releasing its world happiness report, both Forbes and the Hurun Report unveiled their annual updates on the world’s billionaires.
All of these reports in their own right provide fascinating insights into economies worldwide, but together a striking message hits home: there is a remarkable disconnect between the countries that provide home for most billionaires, and the world’s happiest nations.
First, the happiest countries are an odd bunch. Norway, Denmark and Iceland lead the pack, with Finland and Sweden also in the top 10. Quite how the people of these dark, cold north European nations can so enjoy their dark, long winters and the permanent need to swaddle themselves in six layers of clothing completely bamboozles me.
Maybe the UN’s methodology contributes to their weird selection, with six criteria being used to compute the self-evaluated sense of happiness – income, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, generosity, freedom and trust.
The result is that seven of the top 10 happy nations are in Europe (Netherlands and Switzerland follow closely behind our happy Scandinavians), and the other three are our Anglo-Saxon colonials – Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Still, these rankings puzzle me, even as I confess my bias against the six month freezing permadark of Scandinavia. Why not Bhutan, the original home of gross national happiness as a replacement for GNP – which ranks a miserable 97 – or flamboyant Caribbean Jamaica which at 76 ranks close to grumpy Hong Kong (71st). Why not wine-loving Italy at 48th, or the self-satisfied Singaporeans at 26th?
But cross-check the world’s happy communities against the countries with the largest numbers of billionaires, and the lack of overlap is striking. Just one of the happy guys sits in the top 10 nodes of affluence – Switzerland, which with 77 billionaires ranks sixth. Happy Norway boasts just six billionaires, and Iceland has not a single one. Finland has just four, and New Zealand only one. Perhaps having fewer billionaires around leaves communities less to feel jealous about.
