For the sixth year in a row, Finland tops the list for the world’s happiest country. You can download the full report at worldhappiness.report/ed/2023. My own spiritual homeland, Iceland, is number three. In general, Nordic countries are high ranking year after year.

Professor John Helliwell, one of the report’s authors, stated that altruism and social trust are key components for the happiest countries. He said, “It isn’t really about the grades or the salary, it’s about cooperating with people in a useful way. You do end up feeling better about yourself if you’re actually looking after other people rather than number one.”

The happiest countries have less wealth disparity than ultra-capitalist countries such as ours. They have a healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life decisions. They have socio-political diversity but it does not destroy them.

We rank #15 on the list, and the U.S. has never made it to the top 10 since the report was first published in 2012. To make it to the top five, we would need to feed the hungry and house the homeless universally. Everyone would have access to adequate health care. The rich would have to pay their fair share of taxes, and top level salaries would be perhaps 10 times greater than lower level workers rather than 1,000 times higher.

An earlier (2017) report included a chapter on the central paradox of the modern American economy as identified by Richard Easterlin (1964, 2016): “Income per person has increased roughly three times since 1960, but measured happiness has not risen. The situation has gotten worse in recent years: per capita GDP is still rising, but happiness is now actually falling.”

The 2023 report also notes the happiest countries had the lowest COVID-related deaths in 2021 and 2022 because they cooperated to suppress community transmission. The pandemic seemed to bring out the best in people accustomed to altruism and collaboration and it has brought out the worst in societies where individualism is venerated.

In the U.S. during 2020 and 2021, we accounted for nearly 20% of COVID deaths globally while being less than 5% of the world’s population. In the U.S., public health officials have been demonized and political and school leaders who worked to save lives through mandates have suffered death threats. This will never make sense to me.

As I reflect on this report, I mourn the fact that the number one cause of death for children ages 1-19 in the United States involves firearms — through mass murder, homicide or suicide.

If we shared the values of most other countries, we would have chosen human life over guns many years ago because we would have been taught to think of others rather than some perverse notion of the freedom to own as many firearms as we like. We would have been clear-eyed with compassion and logic.

My friends in Iceland value their free society yet not at the expense of selfish indifference to others. They keep asking me what is wrong with our gun sickness here. What in the world can I say that makes sense? Choosing guns over an acceptable prediction of public safety and doing nothing to immediately change this paradigm is the most insidious form of evil — apathy.

If we Americans pulled together to protect each other from pandemics and gun violence, we would be shifting from individualist nihilism to collective positive movement forward. If too many Americans persist in toting guns using their bizarre imaginary God as a gun-rights shield, they will continue to participate in death-making. The actual Christ preached universal love and non-violence. Right-wing Christians stand in opposition in their tangled web of self-deception.

It is notable that 98% of mass shooters are men. A majority of them were raised in religious Christian households. To get to the root of the problem, we need to address patriarchal violence and religiosity. In any family, it seems infinitely wiser to teach universal secular or spiritual love rather than the perpetual wrath of a fictional angry and chauvinistic God. Benevolent Christian leaders who stand for peace and social justice should continue to clearly posit themselves in contrast to the greed-based, bigoted versions.

Contentment is an apt description of the kind of happiness noted in the annual reports. Countries achieve this through work and will. The secret is out. The wonderful paradox — altruism as self-interest — as we feel happiest when we exercise humanity is very doable. First, we have to chuck the guns.

J.M. Sorrell is a feminist at her core. She is committed to a fair, just and peaceful world.]]>