Are Americans The World's Most Miserable People?

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That's a very good point, actually. The U.S. is not supposed to be a place of misery, so we all pretend otherwise. 9/11 had some changes to that thinking, but it may take a few generations to change completely.

I'd say it has a lot to do with unfulfilled expectations. We constantly hear about the American Dream, America as The Land Of Opportunity, the most powerful country on earth, etc. so you naturally expect to be able to do and accomplish great things. Its unrealistic that everyone can do that, even in America, and so I think we tend toward disappointment.

I was afraid to add that I wanted to exclude failed states from my conversation, but knowing the way these boards worked, someone, somewhere would bring up some tribe in Yemen or Chad that were the world's happiest people, and there would be a tangent. But yes, I generally agree that residents of failed states do indeed live in misery, both psychological and material.

I probably should have qualified by asking if Americans are the most miserable in a socially advanced country. Socially advanced, to me, is a state that can maintain internal security AND provide the institutions to do so. For instance, Morocco is poor, but has strong institutions that provide for stability.

I also want to include countries were small parts resemble failed states, but they are mostly stable. India is one example. Even in the U.S, the rule of law isn't perfect. It's an open secret that Colorado City, Arizona is run by fanatics with no regard for the U.S. constitution.

I think the folks in Haiti are them most miserable, in objective terms.

Are Americans the most - unhappy- folks? Far from it. We live in hopes and dreams beyond our means to make them all come true. Unhappy people are glum and do little. Perhaps Americans are among the most unrealistic folks. We have people who love to feed and stoke up unreasonable expectations and they make a great deal of money doing it.

ruveyn

I deliberately excluded residents of failed states from my OP. Nothing against the misery Haitians feel, but you know someone would bring up some village in Haiti that's very happy, and we'd spend a page arguing about it.

I just assume the vast majority of residents of failed states are miserable, both mentally and physically.

By what measure. By a questionaire that asks: Are you happy?

Or by some objective measure of unhappiness. Do you have such a measure and what is it?

ruveyn

I'm an American and I refuse to be miserable.
I make other people miserable

Seriously, though, I think some people over do it on the depression thing.

I would have trouble with depression no matter where I lived,but I'm glad I live here or I would be dead without government help,or beat to death because I would be the village weirdo.
Thank goodness for Lexapro and Medicaid.

Most Americans are raised to be Believers and not Thinkers. You could drag in the religion thing at this, but it goes beyond that. Belief and Faith get mixed in with Nationalism. As a result, if the Nation is perceived to be failing, then people get depressed or paranoid.

It almost feels like a personal failure. I also think Americans have a bizarre sense of identity and they live vicariously through their kids or the success of the nation or even celebrities. If their kid is a college grad working at McDonalds or their Nation is so broke it delays refueling their Aircraft Carriers they feel like their world is crumbling.

if younger Americans have a similar sense of identity they will just lose themselves in their online RPG characters.

Every great empire fails
Ageing is beyond the material
Everything is accelerating
We are moving forward quicker than ever before
Hold on tight

Do not externalise your own feelings upon your country
least the country starts to fulfil your projections
Much of America is polluted, including peoples toxic and too large bodies
This should be the primary focus to improve America

Happiness, unhappiness, or any emotional state cannot be measured objectively, at least not with our current philosophical framework. Emotions are internal states, and are measured differently. Your happiness is different than mine, or at least we have to presume because we cannot see it directly. In fact, there is a very influential branch of research psychology, behaviorism, that regards emotions as an internal state, and not something that can be researched. While we can study what triggers objective emotional states, we cannot know how they manifest themselves. This has to do both with emotions being experienced differently, and, I believe, as cultural constructs. So to answer your question, no, there are no objective measures of happiness. There are some studies that have questionaires, and the Economist Intelligence Unit publishes a quality of life index, but I am not aware of any measure of happiness. I can point you to what I do know of if you'd like.

The best we can do is use proxies. My personal favorite is the failed state index that Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace publish once a year. This measure is of objective political and economic factors, and so has no correlation with happiness even if happiness could be measured. Nevertheless, we know all humans, regardless of culture, require security as a prerequisite to happiness. Happiness is impossible in a failed state, save in isolated cases and times. South Sudan may rank slightly above Yemen, but both are equally miserable places to live.

In writing this, I now imagine that human development index ssome group publishes (I forget who) may be a good measure. But I know security best. If humans are not secure, they cannot be happy.

Thus, my OP about misery among Americans should have been about miseries in societies that are whole, functioning, and have strong institutions. Say what you like about the U.S, but our civil society and rule of law generally function well.

I think more Americans would find better success and fulfillment if we learned to be more greatful for what have in the present and less obsessed with what we don't have.

To whom or what should we be grateful?

ruveyn

I dont think the vast majority of Americans are depressed. But I think most are bitter, angry, and agitated. These days they get riled up over the little things. The slightest penny spent by the government (whether it's for a good cause or not) sends Americans into a tirade. People complain about the problems with this country yet refuse to make any sacrifices that would bring about a solution. They are lacking more in common sense and charity and courtesy. It's an every man for himself situation we have going on here and everyone's pushing the government to make sure it's to their advantage.

The lack of a common culture, having common goals, and there are some things we should all agree to.

USA IS Number 1, but not in education.

We have done wonders in clean air and water,

We do go astray with things like our war machine, building a 600 ship Navy by restoring WWII Battleships, spending on Star Wars space based lasers that then called for spending on anti space based lasers, then defending space based lasers, which none were ever built or deployed.

We paid for nothing, and education suffered.

We have a lot of rockets and bombs, no one is sure if they still work.

The last few Presidents were serial killers using drones, when the one before them used cruise missles on Afganistan, and the blowback was 9/11.

Acting like no one will ever have the same tech, Space drones that pinpoint deliver and take out a city. They could not stop a plane in New York, a hundred pound package from space gets a free ride.

Why did we kill 100,000+ in Iraq? How did a No Fly Zone in Libya turn into bombing, which turned over weapons to people who do not like us? What are we doing in Sryia?

This total lack of a concept of a future, makes the present unsettled.

We freeze countries international assets, cancel their insurance, blockade their ports, invade their airspace, and send in bombers and assasins to kill and destroy.

We used to be known for something, now we are the rapists of Abu Greb.

So how about National Health Care, Free Education as long as you can make the grades, and expanding the National Parks?

We could use at least one new city every five years, built as good as we can. Good public transportation, connected by high speed rail, confined, with bands of farmland, forests, and hiking trails.

How about full employment and less prisons?

We are going somewhere, we could be making a choice.

Many Americans I meet in NZ
Usually young travellers
Show signs of genetic deterioration

The gene pool is deteriorating via toxic lifestyles
Do something about it or
Cu later alligator

AKA fall of Rome