Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Let's measure things we can't!

Not sure if this is the same survey that I wrote about earlier, but Denmark takes the top spot in this happiness article as well. You have to admit-- Colombia at the #3 spot seems to cut against everything they say about freedom leading to happiness. Though maybe it shouldn't be a surprise-- consider the sweeping claims made on the backs of questions like these:

- Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?

- All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?

I'm curious to see in the upcoming years if the happiness literature continues to fester, gains more of a following (God forbid), or fades away into a bar joke we can all laugh about in 15 years.

3 comments:

danarch said...

I wonder if countries like Colombia if the survey was administered to those who would say they were happy (like the wealthy) instead of the general starving masses. Denmark is a different story though. Homogenity FTW.

Matt E. Ryan said...

That is certainly a possibility. If I'm not mistaken, I think that there is a (relatively) good part of Colombia and a (relatively) bad part of Colombia, too. I'm sure how pervasive the study was-- I wish the article would have mentioned it by name.

Justin M Ross said...

"All things considered..."

What the hell does that mean?

Considering I live in a squandering hell hole of despair with no hope of improving my situation...I am very happy.