Happiness and Community

When I meet Scandinavians, i.e., folks from countries that are consistently at the top of the World Happiness Rankings, I often ask them to explain this phenomenon.

Almost uniformly, they respond in terms of the sense of community that pervades their society.  Everyone pays slightly higher taxes, but no one dies of a treatable disease nor goes bankrupt due to health costs, everyone gets a free college education, and there is essentially no homelessness.

True to form, no other region of the world has done a better job with respect to environmental responsibility.  That’s because no one better understands the concept that “we’re all in this together.”