ARE SLAVIC PEOPLE NATURALLY UNHAPPY?

[Gator]

CNN has a special on happiness and an associated webpage:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/happiness/

If you click on “web extras”, one of the links is a map showing relative happiness of 17 countries.


1.   Denmark (most happy)
2.   Switzerland
3.   Mexico
4.   Canada
5.   USA
6.   UK
9.   China
10.   Japan
11.   India
14.  Egypt
15. Russia
16. Ukraine
17.  Tanzania (least happy)

Why?  Is this about democracy and governmental control?  No, China would be at the bottom. 

Is this about economics?  To some degree, yes, but Mexico is above the USA when one might think near Morocco if not Egypt? 

And note that China is slightly ahead of Japan. Almost extreme opposites in democracy and economy.

Is this culture, a term that covers virtually everything about living?  Appears so.  Why?

No information on the survey – when, parameters, etc.

[Gator]

It is amazing how one survey will report one fact and a similar poll show something different. 

SURVEY SAYS:  If you open another link in “web extras” on the above cited webpage, you will find the results of a happiness poll that found the happiest age group is 30-50. 


ANOTHER SURVEY SAYS:  In contrast, if you watch the CNN TV program, another survey reported that the happiest Americans are:

Men in their 60s
Educated
Religious
Live in Sunbelt
Married
Have no kids at home
Republican
The unhappiest age group for men, those in 20-29 age group.
The unhappiest people:  single parents with children under 18.

This is probably more a statement on TV programming than anything.

[Gator]

I think I have found the source of the national comparisons in my thread starter.  It was around 2000 and done by University California psychologist named Michael Hagerty. Those of us around the FSU in 2000 and now will acknowledge that people were very unhappy then and are somewhat happier today (but not happy in public).
   
“According to surveys, he (Hagerty) notes, the most important sources of personal happiness are:
-- Close ties to friends and family;
-- Wide political freedom;
-- High income, and
-- A narrow gap between rich and poor.
Those four factors have come across consistently, in national and international surveys over the last 30 years….Data indicate that in Asian cultures, people readily acknowledge their personal happiness is less important to them than "family prosperity and honor.”

I kept Googling and found other similar surveys, but with conflicting results.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5169448.stm

BBC reported in July this year that of 178 nations, Germany ranked 81st, Japan 95th, UK 108th, and the US at 150th.  “Latin American nations dominate the top 10 places in the index, while African and Eastern European nations fill most of the bottom 10.”


http://www.physorg.com/news73321785.html

Another 2006 survey also covered 178 countries, making one think that it was the same.  results differed:

1 - Denmark

2 - Switzerland

3 - Austria

4 - Iceland

5 - The Bahamas

6 - Finland

7 - Sweden

8 - Bhutan

9 - Brunei

10 - Canada

11 - Ireland

12 - Luxembourg

13 - Costa Rica

14 - Malta

15 - The Netherlands

16 - Antigua and Barbuda

17 - Malaysia

18 - New Zealand

19 - Norway

20 - The Seychelles

Other notable results include:

23 - USA

35 - Germany

41 - UK

62 - France

82 - China

90 - Japan

125 - India

167 - Russia

The three least happy countries were:

176 - Democratic Republic of the Congo

177 - Zimbabwe

178 - Burundi

And as I keep Googling, I see one survey that has Nigeria at the top.  Never been there but that seems biased against my concept of happiness.

Considering the conflicting reports, I still subscribe to the philosophy, “We each are responsible for our own happiness; happiness comes from within.”  No other person, including a RW, is responsible for making us happy.

[jb]

Gator,

I think you will find the answer to this quandary back with Maslow and his hierarchy of needs.  the bottom of the list is Russia, Ukraine, and (oddly in my opinion) only one African country.  Russia and Ukraine are ruled by a wild form of capitalism where basic financial security is in doubt everyday for too many of the average citizen.  Had you taken this survey 20=25 years ago under the old Cradle to the Grave system, I believe you would have seen the reverse with Russia i.e., USSR, at, or very near, the top of the list.

[Jet]

Gator,

I think you will find the answer to this quandary back with Maslow and his hierarchy of needs.

Perhaps we've overlooked an even simpler explantion - People living in the Northern Hemisphere where toilets swirl (as they should) in a counter clockwise direction are clearly happier overall than those living south of the equator 

[ConnerVT]

And as I keep Googling, I see one survey that has Nigeria at the top.  Never been there but that seems biased against my concept of happiness.

The answer is obvious.  There is so much cash floating around Nigeria, everyone must be happy.  I know this, because nearly every day, someone emails me asking me to help them find a place to store all this money...

[jb]

Jet,

I've never seen a Soviet toilet "swirl", mostly there's just a gush of water and stuff disappears off the shelf.  Then you pick up the brush and scrub, then pick up the deodorant and spray. Replace the sand paper roll on the shelf, exit, and hope nobody was ever aware you were in there.

Newbies have a whole new range of things that await their experience.

[Mir]

Hmmm
Such tables and comparisons are only for amusement since it is very difficult to measure happiness.
Personally I feel that happiness and the tendency to smile has a direct relation to the amount of sunshine in the winter. So in my experience the Scandinavians and their decendent Russians are the least likely to smile. Now this may not mean that they are unhappy just that they don’t smile much. I don’t know about Danish statistics but Finland is not far from Denmark and Finland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
Another important point is to understand that poverty although a terrible thing is not always the cause of extreme unhappiness. Within societies the unequal distribution of wealth is more likely to cause unhappiness and lead to higher level of crime then the absolute degree of poverty. Especially if people who are underprivileged feel that they are powerless to change their lot.
Of course there are other variables to consider

[SANDRO43]

People living in the Northern Hemisphere where toilets swirl (as they should) in a counter clockwise direction

Your plumber must have scammed you :

Draining bathtubs/toilets
A popular misconception is that the Coriolis effect determines the direction in which bathtubs or toilets drain, and whether water always drains in one direction in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the other direction in the Southern Hemisphere. In reality, the Coriolis effect is a few orders of magnitude smaller than other random influences on drain direction, such as the geometry of the sink, toilet, or tub; whether it is flat or tilted; and the direction in which water was initially added to it. Note that toilets typically are designed to only flush in one rotation, by having the flush water enter at an angle. This is less of a puzzle once one remembers that the earth revolves once per day but that a bathtub takes only minutes to drain. When the water is being drawn towards the drain, the radius with which it is spinning around it decreases, so its rate of rotation increases from the low background level to a noticeable spin in order to conserve its angular momentum (the same effect as ice skaters bringing their arms in to cause them to spin faster).

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Draining_bathtubs.2Ftoilets)

[Gator]

Sandro, words are cheap.  All of your variables can be described mathematically.  Please derive a mathematical equation.

In the absence of an equation, I will rely on empirical data.  Namely my few trips below the equator have always observed a counter-clockwise spin (or maybe it was the room spinning from too much cerveza and cerveja).

[Turboguy]

Sandro, Having had my head in many a toilet, I have to disagree with you.  The water enters smack dab in the middle and a toilet is symmetrical.  The same goes for most sinks although some allow you to swing the faucet arm which would affect the flow.

[Turboguy]

I will retract my last statement.  After I posted that I got thinking more about it and after having stuck my hear in a toilet a few more times, now with my eyes open you are right the water is directed.   Mine is directed counter clockwise.  Still that does not account for a sink or tub full of water that is directed in no particualer direction.

[SANDRO43]

Gator & T/G, I entertained your same idea, and even thought it was confirmed by a sink in the Seychelles, but then the quoted articled made me doubt. After all, flushing a toilet or sink takes some 10 seconds max, and in that timeframe the Earth only rotates :

360°/24/60/6 = 0.04°

Mine is directed counter clockwise

Well, it shouldn't, since downward flow of water should behave like that of air:

In the northern hemisphere an anticyclone rotates in the clockwise direction

However, we can use the bathroom for another truly scientific experiment that will settle the issue : take a leak and observe in which direction it corkscrews . We can then ask Kuna for HIS observations in the other hemisphere .

[Turboguy]

Sandro,

First off, all that sticking my head in the toilet to see which way the water was flowing had another very negative effect.   I reminded me that my toilet and bathroom are a bit overdue for a cleaining so I now have one more thing on my to do someday list.

As far as taking a leak and watching which way it swirls.  I miss a lot so it mostly just spashes and puddles. 

Now more serious.  Water is a liquid and air is a gas so they behave under different rules.   Lets not talk about gasses or the next thing you will do is have someone checking thier own gasses to see if they swirl. 

Next as far as 360°/24/60/6 = 0.04°  That is assuming a flush time of 10 seconds.   Perhaps we can also survey flush times and if water swirls in a shelf toilet.   Since we don't have them here, send me the airfare and I will make a two week trip to Russia for scientific studies.

[SANDRO43]

Now more serious. Water is a liquid and air is a gas so they behave under different rules.

But both are FLUIDS, so at least Bernoulli's Principle should be satisfied.

Lets not talk about gasses or the next thing you will do is have someone checking their own gasses to see if they swirl. 

This would open a fascinating new area of investigation. However, it would require some preliminary groundwork to determine their density, and therefore their tendency to upward/downward motion in still air (we would also need a gas equivalent of fluorescine, to evidence that properly).

Lastly, we already have esteemed RWD FSU members in place (wasn't Elena involved with calculating missile trajectories ?), therefore your offer of a field study is appreciated but unnecessary .

[Turboguy]

Yes, Liquids and gasses are both fluids.  Both have a tendency to conform to the shape of the container but there are differences in the laws applying to both such as a gas has a tendency to disperse and a liquid does not.

Of course Liquid is a state and gasses and solids can also be a state.

Incidentally I work with the flow of liquids as a profession and I spent a good portion of my misspent teen years studying the trajectory of rockets, along with their design.