Why The US Is Not Happy: Income Inequality

Original article by Mutha Bob

Yesterday, CNN informed me that in addition to being the first day of Spring, it was also the 2014 United Nations International Day Of Happiness.  Pretty cool, I thought, but how does one measure such a thing?  And

why didn't the US rank in the top five?  It turns out that there is a think tank in Sweden known as the Global Happiness Organization, recognized by the UN.  They conduct extensive polling worldwide, asking people to rate their happiness on a scale of one to ten.  More on the results later on...

Curious being that I am, I did a bit of research (my sources will be cited).  The first thing that I thought of was income inequality.  In other words, what percentage of a nation's wealth goes to the top 10% (or even 1%) compared to, say, the "middle class" (whatever that is). What impact does this have on happiness?  I thought back to an interesting 2013 documentary I'd seen on Netflix, Inequality For All.  In it, former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich makes a  strong case about why the average American is screwed due to the rapidly widening economic gap.  Worth watching; a good way to spend an hour.  

But wait, I thought.  There's got to be a lot more to "happiness" than just how well or poorly the average citizen earns compared to the "top 1%" in their country.  What about things like war?  Climate?  Government?  Education?

It turns out that the UN also tracks and ranks countries by a thing called the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI).  Simply stated, the IHDI measures health, education, and income.  There's also a version that's not adjusted for inequality, but all things considered, IDHI seemed like the best meter I could find.  The results of a comparison between national happiness and IHDI didn't surprise me:

2013 Top Ten Happy Countries

1. Denmark

2. Norway

3. Switzerland

4. Netherlands

5. Sweden

6. Canada

7. Finland

8. Austria

9. Iceland

10. Australia

2012 Top Ten IHDI Countries

1. Norway

2. Austria

3. Sweden

4. Netherlands

5. Germany

6. Ireland

7. Switzerland

8. Iceland

9. Denmark

10. Slovenia

In other words, seven out of the world's ten happiest countries also score in the top ten for health, education, and income.  The US?  17th for happiness, 16th for IHDI.  Mexico beats us in happiness at 16th despite an IHDI of 55th (?)  BTW, the US moves up to 3rd place if income inequality is taken out of the equation (HDI, 2013). 

Conclusions?  For the US, the answer to greater happiness comes back to my first thought.  REVERSE the income inequality that has become our plague since the late 70's.  How to do that will be another topic. I suppose that if you want to be happier in America (as it is), you could decide to be a CEO, sports, or entertainment star.  That, or occupy Wall Street, Hollywood, and Yankee Stadium.  Good luck with either one...What do you think?  Please comment below!

Sources:

World Happiness Report (http://unsdsn.org/resources/publications/world-happiness-report-2013/)

2012 IHDI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality-adjusted_HDI)

2013 HDI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index)

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