Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

South Korea ranked 49th on the world's "Happiness Scale," its position on the happiness index being below the global average, according to a global survey Friday.
By Choi Kyong-ae, Korea Times (December 10, 2004)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200412/kt2004121015562011860.htm

[jajdude]

A strange scale. Only 82 countries? Well, being number 49 out of 82 sounds about right for Korea I guess. Puerto Rico and Mexico are the happiest? Why is that? Just that the people have happy personalities?

Interesting to notice the richer are not necessarily happier.

[rapier]

What a great conclusion: " so don't worry about your work so much-worry about your wife"
great.
mexico here I come.

[matthews_world]

U.S. is 15th.

One or two reasons I can think why:

1. We're too gung-ho on stopping terrorism. Security is a prominent issue in this country. Bush has got everyone paranoid.

2. Abolishing the right of Americans to carry guns would allow us to breathe a large sigh of relief. This, I believe, would drastically reduce the murder rate. People would feel safer.

Of course these are just general beliefs. I don't have the time to search the internet for findings to back my statements. These just pop up in the back of my head.

America would be so much better if it stopped policing the world.

[matthews_world]

Here's the link to the study which the reporter doesn't give:

http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/news/index.html


Scroll down and look for the study entitled:
"Subjective Well-being Rankings of 82 Societies" by Ronald Inglehart, 2004-11-09

[jajdude]

15th out of 82 isn't so bad.

I wonder where Canada placed?

How about Australia? Those guys seem like a happy lot.

[hari seldon]

Last year the same survey firm said that the happiest people in the world were Nigerians.

If Puerto Ricans are so happy then why do so many emigrate to the U.S.?

[Real Reality]

Subjective well-being rankings (based on combined Happiness and Life Satisfaction scores)

1. Puerto Rico
2. Mexico
3. Denmark
4. Ireland
5. Iceland
6. Switzerland
7. N. Ireland
8. Colombia
9. Netherlands
10. Canada
11. Austria
12. El Salvador
13. Venezuela
14. Luxembourg
15. U.S.
16. Australia
17. New Zealand
18. Sweden
19. Nigeria
20. Norway
21. Belgium
22. Finland
23. Saudi Arabia
24. Singapore
25. Britain
26. W. Germany
27. France
28. Argentina
29. Vietnam
30. Chile
31. Philippines
32. Taiwan
33. Domin.Rep.
34. Brazil
35. Spain
36. Israel
37. Italy
38. E. Germany
39. Slovenia
40. Uruguay
41. Portugal
42. Japan
43. Czech Rep
44. S. Africa
45. Croatia
46. Greece
47. Peru
48. China
49. S. Korea
50. Iran
51. Poland
52. Turkey
53. Bosnia

http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/news/index.html

[princess]

Well, no wonder. If I married someone just because he was Korean and I ws too to please Mom and Dad, I don't think I would be too happy either. I'd rather be single for the rest of my life than to marry for reasons other than love and passion. My ex-boyfriend is a joke!!!

[sadsac]

The reason Korea did so well, was they only asked Koreans living abroad. There was no local in country survey.

[baldrick]

Happiness ranking?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk then.....

[jajdude]

Vietnam number 29? They don't look so happy to me. But they do seem good at accepting their lot of $2-3 bucks a day while watching foreigners blow $10-$20 on beer.

Why not Thailand (or maybe Laos) in the top 50-plus? Those people seemed happier whenever I met them.

Canada number 10? Cool...

Go back though and hear people complain.

Read a while ago about Finland, or was it Norway?.... one native guy had a great statement: "Everyone complains because they have everything."
(great education, high standard of living, cleanliness, etc..)
===============================================
Anyway, that's just a silly survey I guess. Take with a grain of salt.

[Swiss James]

Personally I'm not sure how much faith to put in a survey that lists East and West Germany as separate countries.