The world is becoming a happier place: study

Man the doom and gloom prophets are out in full force tonight. I find it amusing that if this were a survey about how the whole world is becoming more depressed (as the mass media would be more likely to do), we would have endless posts about how this more evidence that life sucks and the end is nigh.

When its a GOOD study, then all of a sudden everyone becomes a survey methodology expert and quickly dismisses it. The truth is this is unsurprising. When you take out the bias and attempt to simply look at how people feel about their lives, they are likely to be happier today than they were in the past. Note that this won't work all the time, because as we see in the US, the media and doom and gloomers have a vested interest in telling us how horrible we have it. In countries where the media is less likely to be filled with such propaganda, you will find happier people.

In the United States, Switzerland and Norway, happiness was stagnant, but all three countries were still in the top 20 of 97 nations, representing 90 percent of the world's population, that were ranked in order for happiness.

"Happiness and life satisfaction rise steeply as one moves from subsistence-level poverty to a modest level of economic security and then levels off," the study says.

"Among the richest societies, further increases in income are only weakly linked with higher levels of subjective well-being," it says.

How happy a country is, is also strongly related to how democratic it is, said Inglehart.

All these things are an anathema to what large portions of ATS want to believe. Once again, the research shows that life IS NOT sucking. That - despite constantly beating us over the head and telling us how horrible we have it - people still realize the end is not nigh.

Do you hear that sound in the background? Its the media and ATS doom and gloomers cursing. They were hoping they could use this to put on the front page that research shows life sucks, and ATS doom and gloomers were hoping to create a thread about it to congratulate each other on how correct they are about how bad they have it.

Talk about embracing ignorance...as per the usual, a study is only relevant when it fits what people want to believe. In the case of ATS, it means anything that does not confirm a doom and gloom mindset is summarily dismissed.

[edit on 9-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

Happiness is a state of mind. It's a matter of personal perspective. It's about things that make one's heart dance.

Am I deluding myself that the world is a wretched mess? Not at all.

Are there times that my environment places me in a foul mood? Plenty.

Do I feel the need to wallow in misery and depression 24/7? Of course not!

All I need to do is simply watch my children smile and play, and the world's madness just falls from my shoulders. Is it always butterflies and kisses? No, but it's the best I've got, and I am the merrier for it.

Sorry just taking current events into account.

With all the jobs being extensively cut, banks folding, and gas prices rising...not to mention the current tensions internationally that seem to be leaning toward a third world war...it's hard to embrace this study and let out a sigh of relief.

Ever driven by a tent city comprised of those that have just lost their homes?

I didn't say the study was bad...but personally I just can't relate to it.

You are welcome to, though.
Maybe the world is happier for some.

- Lee

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective
reply to post by Cool Hand Luke

 

Gulp, gulp gulp

Swill, swill, swill

Ahhhhhh...

The kool-aid must taste so good...

It was very refreshing actually thank you

Uhh, yeah, everything is just going so hunky-dory.

Well its about time you said something positive

Nothing to see here, no food shortages, no hard financial times, and "oh, we're always at war, so who cares about that".

Are some people going through some financial trouble? Yes. Has that ever not been the case? No

In the West there are no food shortages. The only food shortages are in countries that are dominated by dictators and/or so called "freedom fighters" (ie south america, africa, etc).

As for the war comment, I never said "who cares about that". I was simply saying that on earth there has never been a 5 year period where the wasn't some battle on some corner of the world. Now you make it seem like this latest war will develop into the apocalypse. Consider how many troops are involved in this war compared to previous wars. Here's a hint its much less and guess what, its a volunteer army.

lmao

Well at least I could make you laugh. Btw none of you chicken littles have answered my question. What has those "evil corporations" or "big bad government" or "imagined Illuminati" done to you personally to limit you from achieving your goals in life?

Perhaps your goals in life are to make as many people as miserable as yourself. In which case I think your making a good effort but lack originality.

reply to post by ALightinDarkness


They can't seem to figure if you want to smell the roses, you actually have to go outside and smell the roses.

All i have to say is perception is reality and ignorance is bliss. If i didn't go down the rabbit hole, my life would be a lot less doom and gloom

Its not good for book sales and business of conspiracy theorists but its quite true: The world is becoming better every day. On that thread I gathered statistics to prove so.

reply to post by RedGolem


If judging from the information above, then i am very sad because of this newest plot to decieve the world into believing illusions.

reply to post by Skyfloating


I really enjoyed that debate. I wonder how many doomsayers took the time to read it because if they did, they might realize how many new happy "sheeple" there are in the world.

They snippet of that psychiatrist's article was paticularly entertaining. Which begs the question, when will these people be happy? When the economy collapses? When all world leaders commit suicide? When all technology is removed? Possibly when the world population dies except for those few who saw nothing good in the world so they could restart society?

Also a big for your Reverse Conspiracy Thread.

Originally posted by Cool Hand Luke
They snippet of that psychiatrist's article was paticularly entertaining. Which begs the question, when will these people be happy? When the economy collapses? When all world leaders commit suicide? When all technology is removed? Possibly when the world population dies except for those few who saw nothing good in the world so they could restart society?

Sadly...I think quite a few ATS members only get happy when disaster strikes. So yes, I think some people will only be happy when something horrible happens. It makes people feel like they have personally achieved some sort of divine vengeance. There are literally quite a few posters who actually admit that they are hoping and praying for disaster because they get off on it.

reply to post by ALightinDarkness


I would not necessarily say that people get off on a disaster. However I do rember reading the stats that the day after the the terror attacks that churches and wedding planners were booking a very large number of weddings, and the birth rate was up thirty percent nine months after the attack. I think it is more of people relise that life is very fragile after a disaster so they got to live it while they can.

I don't agree with this report ? the world feels a lot more fragil and unsecure to me ,but i guess that is just a response to the times we live in .Sometimes i think govs have a belief that if they keep telling people they are happy and life is great they will believe them , but the world for the last few years had just felt wrong to me .Think 1984 the film ..

reply to post by LeeHawt


Somehow i doubt that.

Somehow, i get the idea that the only difference would be that you wouldn't know why life was all doom and gloom.

Going down the rabbit hole has nothing to do with personal happiness, at least - that's if you don't want it to.