Is everyday life in Denmark as happy as the Happiness index says ?

7 comments

1. Meik wiking sounds like a made up name

   Like employees mustwashands

2. I think Americans are romanticising the Danish way of life, and that Meik Wiking is exploiting that.

   Yeah – life is pretty great – as it is in any socially responsible country.

3. I think it depends on your understanding of it. We complain about everything just like everyone else does. It’s just that when it comes down to it (such as when being polled), we recognise that the train being late all the time is not the end of the world and that life isn’t that bad. Most things in society work more or less as they should.

   I also think the word hygge is being blown way out of proportion internationally as some sort of secret insight to the mysteries of life. It’s not. It just means that something is cozy and/or that your relaxing and enjoying yourself, be it with friends/family or alone. That’s it.

   So, we are normal people with normal life and problems. We recognise that life isn’t bad when we think about it, thus we are happy. But you won’t find people singing and whistling merrily in the street on their way to work. Hygge is over-interpreted and just describes hanging out with friends or having a cup of tea on a rainy day

4. It’s not that everyone runs around laughing like a happy stockphoto 24/7, and there are definitely miserable cunts and sad stories around, but in general, people are pretty content because we have a sense of security. We know that, largely, a disease will be a health issue but won’t put is into debt or get us fired, our kids get paid to study and there’s a safety net to catch us so we don’t lose everything. Of course, some bureaucracy can be heavy and some people do slip through the cracks.

5. Yes we are All Happy All the time No exceptions. The reason is that we cull All the depressed an sad that way we are always Happy and full of hygge.

   Its hygge or death.

6. I think it depends on the definition of happiness. We don’t walk around blissful with big smiles and fart rainbows of joy. I think we rank high, because we have a lot of trust in our society and our basic needs are covered. We generally trust eachother, our government, and the services we pay for through our taxes. We trust them to be working and ready for us when we need them.

   While we do have poor and homeless people, we generally don’t have to fear not being able to put food on the table or get/keep the roof over our heads. We don’t go bankrupt when needing healthcare or going to a higher education.

   Our worklife is rather balanced at around 37-40 hours and many jobs with other great benefits. Our salary is enough to not need two or more jobs.

   And we just know there is a safety net to catch us if we fall one or more times in our life. And yes, sometimes that net has holes people fall through, but those are the exceptions.

   So there are many things we don’t need to concern us with and that leaves room for focusing on ourselves, our family and friends. This leads to being more content and happy. But we also love to complain and seeing the flaws in our society, that we then want to fix. And we don’t like when politicians try to change our welfare system as it is what keeps our lives running smoothly. And we do have stress, anxiety and depression issues as well. But in general our country tries to be mindful of those suffering from mental health problems. Few scoff of a person taking a period off working through a stress condition.

7. The happiness index is made up of many things, that make people happy. Among those are, free healthcare, free education, trust in authorities you know you don’t have to bribe anyone.

   So basically happiness is that we can be a little care free, because there is, nearly, always a safety net to catch us(most of us, some slip through)

   I know of a few Americans that live in Denmark they say it has taken them years to not have to worry about a big payout for something that could happen any minute