Are We Happy ?

International Day Of Happiness, 2013

This is my mechanic, I've just collected my car.... I say collected, I walked to the other side of the road and sat in it. I have just had the biannual MOT equivalent and this genius managed to get it through again. Because this is his business (the graffitied wall is part of his garage) he has responsibility for anyone falling over outside it, so most of his day today was probably spent with this machine rather than fixing folks cars. I don't think he's too happy.

Denmark is the top of one list of the happiest countries in the world and 110th in the other (Happy Planet Index). One measures general requirements of a society and the other is weighted by life expectancy and environmental considerations. The second list is topped by Costa Rica where 1/4 of the population lives in poverty and the infrastructure is falling apart but they can live to be well over a hundred.

I guess happiness is very hard to calculate in terms of society but I think for me it means the amount of stuff around you that you take for granted. Such as schools, hospitals, welfare, employment and the like. When students are complaining about how much the government will pay them to go to the free universities, you kinda know things are going to be OK.

Today however, the weather did make Costa Rica seems like quite a good alternative.