Found this article at a friend's blog and can't help myself not to post. The (rather old) article points Denmark as the happiest place on earth.
Danes in general had very little to complain about. Danes do have one potential complaint: high taxes. The happiest people in the world pay some of the highest taxes in the world -- between 50 percent and 70 percent of their incomes. In exchange, the government covers all health care and education, and spends more on children and the elderly than any country in the world per capita.Those high taxes have another effect. Since a banker can end up taking home as much money as an artist, people don't chose careers based on income or status. "They have this thing called 'Jante-lov,' which essentially says, 'You're no better then anybody else,'" said Buettner. "A garbage man can live in a middle-class neighborhood and hold his head high."Denmark is what is called a "post consumerist" society. People have nice things, but shopping and consuming is not a top priority.And perhaps the bicycle is the best symbol of Danish happiness. Danes can all afford cars, but they choose bikes--simple, economical, nonpolluting machines that show no status and help keep people fit.
Having been "dealing" with some danish people these past few months doesn't make me believe they are as happy as it says*, but, damn, living in a city with thousands of things to complain every single day reading it is like reading about a utopia that can never happen. In fact, Denmark with the total area of 43,098.31 km2 has only 5.5 million population while Jakarta of 740.28 km2 has 9.5 million. Just imagine.
*maybe it's because this article was written in 2007 before the global economic crisis which also hit Denmark.
