Yes, our family
has had it for four hundred years, why do you ask?
The Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Developmentreports that people in Denmark,
Finland and the Netherlands are the most content with their lives. The three
ranked first, second and third, respectively, in the OECD's rankings of
"life satisfaction," or happiness. There are myriad reasons, of
course, for happiness: health, welfare, prosperity, leisure time, strong
family, social connections and so on. But there is another common denominator
among this group of happy people: taxes.
countries in the world to establish efficient social services with
the
introduction of relief for the sick, unemployed and aged.
It says social welfare programs include health insurance, health
and
hospital services, insurance for occupational injuries,
unemployment
insurance and employment exchange services. There's also old age
and
disability pensions, rehabilitation and nursing homes, family
welfare
subsidies, general public welfare and payments for military
accidents.
Moreover, maternity benefits are payable up to 52 weeks.
pejorative association because, well, we are never really quite
sure of
what we get in return for paying them, other than the world's biggest
military.
Healthcare and other such social services aren't built into our
system.
That means we have to worry more about paying for things ourselves.
Worrying doesn't equate to happiness.
The U.S. ranked 11th on the OECD list. In addition to the top
three, we
were beat out by Sweden, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Switzerland and Norway. To be sure, we were ahead of France, Great
Britain,
Japan and China, among many others. But we can do better.
With the highest gross domestic product in the world, we are the
richest
country. On a per capita basis, though, we don't even make the top
10. The
U.S. ranks 15th in this category, according to the International
Monetary
"satisfied" countries also earn more on an individual
income basis. Oh yes,
and the average workweek in Scandinavian countries is less than
the U.S.'s
It may not just be taxes, of course, that lead to happiness. There
are
other factors to consider. But better social services and less
worry about
having to pay for things such as medical bills, retirement and
education do
help with the happiness factor.
Yet, we are so dead set against paying more taxes that it's even
spawning
nationwide protests. Tea party, anyone?
Maybe it's time that we looked at taxes differently. We have to
pay them
anyway. So they might as well make us happy. If Northern Europe is
any
benchmark, the more we'd pay the happier we just may be.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-happiest-places-on-earth-are-heavily-taxed
Thomas M. Kostigen is the author of "You Are Here: Exposing
the Vital Ink
Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet" www.readyouarehere.com