Why are the Nordic countries so happy?

[Dan Torrance]

This is a few weeks old.
This is one of the poorest areas in Sweden.
There is also a lot of crimes there, lots of drugs and IIRC more than 80% is on welfare.
View attachment 864188 View attachment 864189

 

[lsa]

I swear I am not high!
I did not go there to buy go there buy drugs!!

 

[Cpt Migraine]

Also, this post struck a cord in me when I read it awhile back

While everything i said is absolutely true i don't think you can really understand.. i have 6 weeks of fully paid + 12% vacation..

If i get sick i'm automatically covered by social insurance, my doctors appointments for terminal cancer is 26$, the medicines are free after i pay 80$ in a year..

I'm protected by some of the worlds strongest laws of employment..

The government pays me to have kids.. oh and also get 480 paid days to be with that kid..

Everyones enjoying automatic pension.. at a livable standard.. even the slightest savings will boost that to actually being fine..

So yeah.. i'm probably not making millions of dollars anytime soon but what i get for free is pretty fucking fantastic all things considered.. and who the fuck knows.. maybe my onlyfans kicks off or i develop an app to convert freedom units to real measurements and make those millions.. then it's pretty fucking hard to tell which country was really the land of opportunities..

 

[Zinger]

While everything i said is absolutely true i don't think you can really understand.. i have 6 weeks of fully paid + 12% vacation..

If i get sick i'm automatically covered by social insurance, my doctors appointments for terminal cancer is 26$, the medicines are free after i pay 80$ in a year..

I'm protected by some of the worlds strongest laws of employment..

The government pays me to have kids.. oh and also get 480 paid days to be with that kid..

Everyones enjoying automatic pension.. at a livable standard.. even the slightest savings will boost that to actually being fine..

So yeah.. i'm probably not making millions of dollars anytime soon but what i get for free is pretty fucking fantastic all things considered..

How much money per child are you guys Getting paid?

 

[Cpt Migraine]

How much money per child are you guys Getting paid?

150$ roughly.. and if you have 3 kids or more it's a bit more per child..

Oh shit.. i forgot.. the education for those fuckers is free and if i decide to change career midlife i can get a loan from the government that almost covers my ass at a 1% fee over 20 years..

Fucking hell.. while everyone likes to find things to complain about i'm almost singing "Du gamla du fria" over here.. oh shit.. am i writing this in pretty passable english btw? Another thing this country gave me..

 

[lsa]

While everything i said is absolutely true i don't think you can really understand.. i have 6 weeks of fully paid + 12% vacation..

If i get sick i'm automatically covered by social insurance, my doctors appointments for terminal cancer is 26$, the medicines are free after i pay 80$ in a year..

I'm protected by some of the worlds strongest laws of employment..

The government pays me to have kids.. oh and also get 480 paid days to be with that kid..

Everyones enjoying automatic pension.. at a livable standard.. even the slightest savings will boost that to actually being fine..

So yeah.. i'm probably not making millions of dollars anytime soon but what i get for free is pretty fucking fantastic all things considered..

Based on his post about how they have more pools I dont think he will understand.

Also just for fun, a gym membership is like 20 - 100USD / months. BJJ you can train for from 150 dollars / year same for MMA.
Its pretty cheap to do sports here imo.
Public transportation is easy access everywhere more or less and petty cheap.

Free after school activates for kids, free dental care to the age of 19. Pretty cheap childcare.

 

[Iroh]

It's because Finland stops at 2017. This is from 2018:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/...te_in_finland_nears_european_average/10324113

But good catch either way.

Okay, but overall still pretty high suicide rates for supposedly the happiest places. I think like with a lot of social studies there's a lot to be questioned, like how the fuck do you quantify happiness and from what I read of the study, it's just pretty loose correlations between certain aspects that improve overall life and the assumption it will make you happy. Which may indicate an agenda past the posited research question or maybe just a poorly formulated title. Like @Cole train said there seems to be a real loneliness problem in Finland, which I think we can all agree is not a sign of happiness, but somehow this seemed to have slipped the defining criteria in the study. But like the memes suggest, shouldn't have been that hard to notice if they put real effort into finding out how happy people are, if looked through a broad scope.

I know that when I was in Finland I was astonished at the sheer amount of alcoholics everywhere. Didn't give me a very happy impression.

I mean there are a lot of people defending Scandinavia, which is fine on it's own, and basically every other Scandinavian country does seem a lot happier in general than Finland, to me. And it's also fair to point out that many people just have very superficial, or even inaccurate, knowledge of those countries. But that all doesn't really prove anything about how they actually stack up to other countries when purely discussing happiness. Which is also a very hard thing to do, because who does have intimate and accurate knowledge of basically all countries and their inhabitants? Probably nobody. But it's still the point of the discussion. It is a comparative statement to say they are the happiest. So you have to compare, not just bitch about people not knowing this or that.

 

[rj144]

How big is your house in sq. ft. ? I guarantee you American homes are MUCH larger than your average houses over there, and with more stuff inside.

It's not out of the ordinary to see what you would consider "poor" over here to be consistently driving new cars.

Dude... have you seen the housing market in the US now???

Soon only the top like 15% will be able to own "big" houses. The rest will be living in small apartments.

 

[FactNotFiction]

Isn't that that place you can have a wank in public? If you consider that pedestrian i don't know what to say.

You will be fined and arrested.

 

[Zinger]

150$ roughly.. and if you have 3 kids or more it's a bit more per child..

Oh shit.. i forgot.. the education for those fuckers are free and if i decide to change career midlife i can get a loan from the government that almost covers my ass at a 1% fee over 20 years..

LOL, I have 2 daughters and last month I got 44 Euros for both of them combined.

Such Bullshit. <45>

 

[FactNotFiction]

Most of them don't own shit compared to Americans, though. A lot of them ride bicycles and shit, dont even have cars, can't afford to buy big houses like we do here. 1/3 of the houses here have pools. I doubt 1% of their population even own pools. Most of them live in tiny ass studio apartments.

My sister lives in Scandinavia. They have 2 cars, 3 houses and 1 vacation home in Spain.

Not representative of everyone, but also far from uncommon.

 

[lsa]

LOL, I have 2 daughters and last month I got 44 Euros for both of them combined.

Such Bullshit. <45>

Boys pay better.
Its sexism but what are you gonna do

 

[FactNotFiction]

Most of them don't own shit compared to Americans, though. A lot of them ride bicycles and shit, dont even have cars, can't afford to buy big houses like we do here. 1/3 of the houses here have pools. I doubt 1% of their population even own pools. Most of them live in tiny ass studio apartments.

Starchy, it's called getting exercise while commuting to work you fat fuck.

Scandinavians don't need pools because it's warm 3 months out of 12.

They have cabins and vacation homes in France/Spain.

 

[Cpt Migraine]

LOL, I have 2 daughters and last month I got 44 Euros for both of them combined.

Such Bullshit. <45>

Yeah it's fucking insane.. i have some people from your neck of the woods at my construction site and the fucking stories they tell.. i'd get the fuck out and make some "decent" money..

Fucking heartbreaking though when guys recieve calls from their wifes and their kids are sick and shit..

 

[Cole train]

Okay, but overall still pretty high suicide rates for supposedly the happiest places. I think like with a lot of social studies there's a lot to be questioned, like how the fuck do you quantify happiness and from what I read of the study, it's just pretty loose correlations between certain aspects that improve overall life and the assumption it will make you happy. Which may indicate an agenda past the posited research question or maybe just a poorly formulated title. Like @Cole train said there seems to be a real loneliness problem in Finland, which I think we can all agree is not a sign of happiness, but somehow this seemed to have slipped the defining criteria in the study. But like the memes suggest, shouldn't have been that hard to notice if they put real effort into finding out how happy people are, if looked through a broad scope.

I know that when I was in Finland I was astonished at the sheer amount of alcoholics everywhere. Didn't give me a very happy impression.

I mean there are a lot of people defending Scandinavia, which is fine on it's own, and basically every other Scandinavian country does seem a lot happier in general than Finland, to me. And it's also fair to point out that many people just have very superficial, or even inaccurate, knowledge of those countries. But that all doesn't really prove anything about how they actually stack up to other countries when purely discussing happiness. Which is also a very hard thing to do, because who does have intimate and accurate knowledge of basically all countries and their inhabitants? Probably nobody. But it's still the point of the discussion. It is a comparative statement to say they are the happiest. So you have to compare, not just bitch about people not knowing this or that.

We are somewhat different culturally from scandis hence why we are not of them

Pic sums up

 

[Cpt Migraine]

Based on his post about how they have more pools I dont think he will understand.

Also just for fun, a gym membership is like 20 - 100USD / months. BJJ you can train for from 150 dollars / year same for MMA.
Its pretty cheap to do sports here imo.
Public transportation is easy access everywhere more or less and petty cheap.

Free after school activates for kids, free dental care to the age of 19. Pretty cheap childcare.

Yeah i don't fucking know man.. while i can absolutely see them having more pools i'm pretty sure the weather is a factor.. (i've gotta give them the weather)..

Also who cares.. we have allemansrätten.. every body of wather i see is bathable for me..

 

[Bornstarch]

While everything i said is absolutely true i don't think you can really understand.. i have 6 weeks of fully paid + 12% vacation..

If i get sick i'm automatically covered by social insurance, my doctors appointments for terminal cancer is 26$, the medicines are free after i pay 80$ in a year..

I'm protected by some of the worlds strongest laws of employment..

The government pays me to have kids.. oh and also get 480 paid days to be with that kid..

Everyones enjoying automatic pension.. at a livable standard.. even the slightest savings will boost that to actually being fine..

So yeah.. i'm probably not making millions of dollars anytime soon but what i get for free is pretty fucking fantastic all things considered.. and who the fuck knows.. maybe my onlyfans kicks off or i develop an app to convert freedom units to real measurements and make those millions.. then it's pretty fucking hard to tell which country was really the land of opportunities..

I get more than 6 weeks of paid vacation a year plus paid sick days. I'm also in a trades union and we have to kill someone to get fired. Our pensions a subject of envy for a lot of people when the subject is discussed. Not to mention matching 401k on top of that. We also have very little co-pay for anything medical, but we pay $80 a month that comes out of our paycheck every month.

 

[lsa]

We are somewhat different culturally from scandis hence why we are not of them

Pic sums up

The only place I ever got offered vodka in a men's room was in Finland.
2 guys with Iron Maiden T-shirts had a Koskin with them and offered me.
I of course accepted. Good times,
Partying in Helsinki has always been fun for me.

 

[Sano]

Okay, but overall still pretty high suicide rates for supposedly the happiest places. I think like with a lot of social studies there's a lot to be questioned, like how the fuck do you quantify happiness and from what I read of the study, it's just pretty loose correlations between certain aspects that improve overall life and the assumption it will make you happy. Which may indicate an agenda past the posited research question or maybe just a poorly formulated title. Like @Cole train said there seems to be a real loneliness problem in Finland, which I think we can all agree is not a sign of happiness, but somehow this seemed to have slipped the defining criteria in the study. But like the memes suggest, shouldn't have been that hard to notice if they put real effort into finding out how happy people are, if looked through a broad scope.

I know that when I was in Finland I was astonished at the sheer amount of alcoholics everywhere. Didn't give me a very happy impression.

I mean there are a lot of people defending Scandinavia, which is fine on it's own, and basically every other Scandinavian country does seem a lot happier in general than Finland, to me. And it's also fair to point out that many people just have very superficial, or even inaccurate, knowledge of those countries. But that all doesn't really prove anything about how they actually stack up to other countries when purely discussing happiness. Which is also a very hard thing to do, because who does have intimate and accurate knowledge of basically all countries and their inhabitants? Probably nobody. But it's still the point of the discussion. It is a comparative statement to say they are the happiest. So you have to compare, not just bitch about people not knowing this or that.

I must admit I don't know much about how Finland operates, definitely not in the same way I do about Sweden and Denmark. I think it speaks to the point I made initially that these surveys measure security and satisfaction as an indirect measure and less so "happiness" directly. I would look through the methodology and determine if this particular survey from the OP is valid or not, but Northern countries always rank the highest in this kind of research and whatever issues you have with what's being measured exactly, it's the same for all the countries included. The video linked in this thread about Sweden highlights the distinction between happiness and satisfaction pretty succinctly.

 

[Cole train]

The only place I ever got offered vodka in a men's room was in Finland.
2 guys with Iron Maiden T-shirts had a Koskin with them and offered me.
I of course accepted. Good times,
Partying in Helsinki has always been fun for me.

I liked puking on streets of stockholm hungover on the way to burger king when we still didnt have one