Why are we not Number One?

The United States is the 14th happiest country in the world.

That’s the conclusion reached by the World Happiness Report, a massive study performed every year since 2012 under the auspices of a United Nations agency and computed by an experienced polling organization.

The thing that distinguishes the Happiness Report from similar studies that rank nations is that it’s not based just on economics. The report looks at six general factors: generosity, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices and absence of corruption (also labeled as trust in government), in addition to per capita income.

Using those factors to compute a composite total, the study finds that Norway is now the happiest country in the world.

Its neighboring Scandinavian nations are all in the top 10: Denmark second, Finland fifth and Sweden tied for ninth. Iceland, which in some lists is counted as Scandinavian, is third.

Others in the top 10 are Switzerland fourth, Netherlands sixth, Canada seventh, Australia eighth and New Zealand tied for ninth.

Are you thinking that the U.S. would still be Number One on economic factors alone?  

Nope.

We’re barely in the top 10, trailing Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Qatar, Kuwait and Hong Kong in terms of per capita income.

But our wealth is more evenly distributed? Not necessarily.

A big reason the Scandinavian nations rank so high on the happiness scale is the relatively small gap between rich and poor. Even in Norway, where offshore oil has increased the national wealth, social and tax policies have benefited the entire population, not just the oil corporations.

In fact, the widening wealth gap in the U.S. is an important factor in the decline of the happiness index here.

In 1975, the top 1 percent of Americans in terms of wealth received just 10 percent of pre-tax national income, while the bottom 50 percent received 20 percent.

By 2014 those percentages had reversed — the top 1 percent received 20 percent of national income, and the bottom half received just 12 percent.

How about the corruption factor?

In 1965, 77 percent of Americans said they trusted their government. By 2015 that figure had dropped off the cliff — only 20 percent felt that way.

An analyst who helped conduct this year’s study recommends five steps the United States could take to raise its happiness index:

• Campaign finance reform, to reduce the corrupting effect of huge anonymous political contributions.

• Reduction of income and wealth inequality through an expanded social safety net, wealth taxes and more public financing of education and health.

• Improved relations between native-born and immigrant residents, following Canada’s lead.

• Moving past the fear created by the 9/11 attack.

• Improved educational quality, access and attainment.

It makes sense to me that those five steps would boost folks’ outlook on life in America. They’re not easy to achieve, and there would be plenty of pushback.

But the happiness report provides a pretty basic road map for us to consider.

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