The latest international ranking on national happiness is out. I bet you have been waiting with baited breath. The report, which has been released annually since 2002, is a publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and draws on global survey data from people in more than 150 counties. Rankings are based on their average evaluations in each nation over the preceding 3 years [2000 to 2002].

And the winner for 2023 is Finland … again! This is the 6th year in a row that the Finns have taken the top spot though they always react with a bit of surprise, a kind of ‘who … us’ reaction. Their shock might be a tad disengenuous. After all, the other competitors for top spot are, for the most part, their close neighbors. Denmark, as usual, takes the runner-up prize while Iceland seems an annual lock for 3rd place.

There are occasional results that raise an eyebrow. Israel jumped several spots to grab the 4th position, somewhat of a surprize given their constant war footing and political wrangling. After that we have more Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway, along with EU members the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Is Luxembourg really considered a country? New Zealand, a candidate from the other side of the globe sneeks into 10th spot. The United States, in case you are interested, is in 15th place. This ranking might be higher than you expected given the daily carnage on our streets and our intense ideological divisions. In last place is poor Afghanistan, but they do have some very reasonably priced vacation tours.

While there is always some shifting among spots in each year’s rankings, the overall patterns are very stable. Not even the global pandemic upset them much. As we have seen, the Nordic countries do very well with 5 in the top 7 positions. Moreover, they are always at the top, year after year. How can this be? After all, these places are cold, have virtually no sunlight for half the freaking year, and pay taxes at rates that would have most Americans grabbing their AR-15s and randomly shooting IRS officials. Moreover, I have never seen a single University from that area of the world ranked in the top 25 U.S. College football polls. What could they possibly be happy about?

Okay, they do have pretty nightime displays of the Northern Lights. That has to be impressive but, again, you have to go out in the freaking cold to enjoy them fully. And what about those freaking taxes. Handing over at least half your income to Aino, the tax collector, cannot ge fun. By the way, it matters not if you are a native Finn or an immigrant merely living there. Both groups are equally happy so the results are not based on some inherited brain abnormality. Nope, people like living in these places even with the frigid temps and high taxes.

Of course, humans being the inquisitive sort, researchers and journalists have sought to uncover the mystery of why freezing your butt off makes folk so content. Perhaps there is no definitive answer but there are some intriguing clues. The Finn’s, for example, talk about liking the small things such as family, friends, and nature. In fact, there is a law there termed ‘Every Man’s Right’ that permits all citizens to enjoy access to most land irrespective of ownership. This sense of sharing common goods spills over into feelings of trust. People expect others to do the right thing. In one Helsinki experment, wallets with cash were intentionally left in public places and over 90 percent were returned to the owners with the money untouched. Contrast that with America where we have have courts sagging under the weight of a litigious society in which suing one another is a national pasttime.

When Nordics talk about what makes them happy, they focus on basic human connections and speak remarkably little about material possessions. The Finnish, as opposed to the American, dream has little to do with accumuating a lot of crap. A rolex watch is far less important than elementary social associations. This often is expressed in their satisfaction with a more humane work-family balance. They have shorter wordays and more vacations. When they have a child, public support starts during the pre-natal period. In Iceland, for example, midwives start providing whatever might be needed as soon as the pregnancy is registered. Upon birth in Finland, the parents are eligible, by law, for extended paid family leave for both mother and father. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, some Nordic countries give up to year of family leave which can be shared between the mother and father. In the U.S. we have nothing, nada, zero.

In addition, so many of life’s anxieties has been eliminated by a strong and extensive safety net that serves all as a matter of right. Medical care is universally available at virtually no out-of-pocket costs, child care is heavily subsidized, education is virtually free through college, and the elderly are taken care of by the state. People in these happy placed do not wake up in the morning fearing that their world will fall apart with a costly medical procedure or a lost job. All this public support costs money, no doubt. The Danes pay well over half of their income in taxes. But they see what they are getting for such a significant investment. One survey found that 88 percent of Danes were happy to pay for the public goods they received. My uninformed guess is that all have a sense of hope, each individual has a shot at security and a reasonable life. Too many in the States face hopeless propsects from day one, with shockingly little support (for such a rich country) on their life’s journey.

There is a greater sense that the citizens in these countries are all in this together. There is a common culture and sense of civic participation. Most are willing to put a good deal of their wealth into public program investments that enable all to ‘thrive socially, physically, and mentally.’ This is a far cry from the ‘me against the world’ sentiment that governs ordinary life in the States. Here, our national foundational story (and national myth) focuses on the indpenedent loner who beats off all others to reach the top of the economic pyramid for himself and perhaps his family. Once there, the winner must remain vigilant against all others who wish to dislodge them from their position of privilege. More over, there is never enough. You must always grab more for yourself or risk sliding down this steep mountain top. How freaking sad. That is not an American Dream, it is a dystopian nightmare.

Perhaps, someday, we as Americans can revisit our foundational myths. Perhaps we can create one based more on collaboration than conflict. Not only might we be happier but we just might save our sorry asses in the end.

I love telling the story that contrasts what happened to a group of boys abandoned on a remote island. In the fictional telling of the story, Lord of the Flies (which was published in my youth), a group of kids found themselves alone on an island after a plane crash. Absent adult supervision and established laws, the kids degenerated into anarchy and violence. The lesson was that savagery was the primal instinct of man unless mastered by some superior power or authority.

Lo and behold, in the 1960s, that very same thing happened in real life. A group of Australian schoolboys went sailing (without permission), got caught in storm that blew them way off course before finally beaching upon a deserted island (called Atta I believe). Unlike the fictional ‘Lord of the Flies’ kids, these real life Robinson Crusoe types organized themselves well and established a crude form of functioning govennment. In short, they cooperated with one another with a one for all and all for one attitude. It was well over a year before they were discovered by accident (it was assumed they were all dead). Given their ordeal, they were in remarkable shape.

The lesson? Perhaps we can all do better if we work together, you know… like that happy place, Finland.