U.S. drops from top 20 happiest countries list in 2024 World Happiness Report for the first time

Must be all the fascism

Corporations paying poverty wages while reporting record profits probably doesn't help either.
- ~~probably~~ definitely
- Actually, wages are higher during Biden's term than they have ever been in the history of America
Actually yes... fascism is a natural consequence of late-stage capitalism as it's one way to keep the exploited masses under control by focussing their anger away from the wealthy leaders.
- What historical precedents would you cite as examples of your statement, "fascism is a natural consequence of late-stage capitalism"?
Given their posting history, I’m sure OP will find a way to say it’s Biden and the Democratic party’s fault.
Looking at the states through this lens is like all the articles that blame “congress” while ignoring which people in which party of which half of congress caused the issue of the day.
There are a multitude of reasons why this metric would come to be, but according to the comments here the important part is to keep saying “America sucks right now” without identifying any realistic solutions.
Best you’ll get is a half assed hand wave of people mumbling about Karl Marx like that helps anything.
No, it's the greed.
But the left and right can unite on that, which is why you try to ignore it.

Housing crisis, 40-year out of date poverty level, a minimum wage that hasn't been increased in 15 years and that has had a continuously decreasing purchasing power for almost 60 years. Most expensive healthcare, rampant student loan debt, record-breaking corporate profits, a self-immolating middle class, etc. etc.

Honestly, it's hard to find much to be happy about here right now.

Well at least you have 31 flavors of classic Rice A Roni.
- Surely there must be countries that have more flavors of rice a Roni?
  I know some countries have special flavors of KitKat compared to our lame selection
Don't forget credit card debt!
At least the Trump presidency is over...oh, wait...
- Lol. Good point.
  If only we had Bernie!
a self-immolating middle class
This is the worst part. Every time I see people who mainly consume digital entertainment scoff at getting it for free, it just cements in my mind how most people are useful idiots.
The US is far richer than a lot of the higher ranked countries. Furthermore, it's the best performing country out of the pandemic. Can't be the reason for the drop
- I'm so glad that big corporations are making record profits. It'll trickle down any day now! /s
- I'm glad you have insight into my level of happiness and its cause. I'll correct myself the next time I think about how inflation is keeping me down. WRONG ANSWER, WALLET!
  Edit: To be more clear, I'm reasonably well-off and still terrified that I'll die in a financial crisis. Our system sucks.
- A tiny percentage of Americans hold the majority of that wealth. The average American is not wealthy.

If you based it on the richest 10% of each country ... the US would probably end up in the top 3

However, if you based it on the bottom 90% ... the US probably wouldn't make it to the top 100

Oh that would be an interesting way to do the report.
- "happiness index of mid quartile"
- Median income happiness index

How was it ever so high?

Because despite the propaganda, it's actually, relatively speaking, a good place to live.
- despite the propaganda
  Yeah, what propaganda might that be..?
The World Happiness Report uses six factors as predictors of life evaluation: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption.
Because we are better than most countries by these metrics

What is there to be happy about?

That the US is still on the list at all
Headline news -> US is on the 2024 World Happiness Report
Cats.
- I'm very allergic. But I'll go with dogs.
So there's really NOTHING that gives you joy? Friends? Family? Hobbies? Pets? A local park or museum? Games you play? Shows you go to? Something you volunteer for or see other people volunteering for? Etc?
- Enough to make my life good enough that I'm a generally happy person? No. Do you know any generally happy Americans that aren't rich?
- A personal sense of joy is not the same as social sense of joy, so while you will find joy in this, the social sphere as a whole would not necessarily do. The highest ranking countries in the list are those with a substantial welfare plan that aren't ideologically aligned. As far as the list goes, the global level of happiness has been decreasing for the past years (climate change, wars, covid, other stuff).

TIL the US was ever in the 20 happiest countries list.

"The World Happiness Report and the Gallup/Meta social connectedness data show peak loneliness for younger Americans. It's widely recognized that social support and feelings of loneliness are influential factors in determining overall happiness, and these dynamics differ across various age groups," she said. "The quality of interpersonal relationships may impact the wellbeing of younger and older individuals in distinct ways."

I'm just gonna... leave this here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
- You're absolutely correct.

I think it might have something to do with some young people not feeling connected to their communities. In my case, I grew up in a conservative Christian community but as I got older, I didn't want to be conservative or Christian. I left the only community I had and I haven't yet found another community to replace it. I don't think this is an entirely new phenomenon, but whereas in the past young people would move from conservative rural areas to more liberal urban areas, many urban areas today are prohibitively expensive, so that's not an option, at least not for as many young people. Many people are therefore without a community, left to feel lonely and alienated.

We have an election front runner who called this country a shithole and half of the people say they love him because he tells it like it is. So there you have it.

Wouldn’t this be the first time the 2024 world happiness report was published?

🧩

I corelate that with having to pay for multiple streaming service.

I'm more surprised this is the first time...

For the first time they actually asked real people or had a better sample.

Israel is #5

I'd be happier if I could slaughter my neighbors too.

Just wanna point out to the thread in general that this isn't just surveying a bunch of people asking "on a scale of 1-10 how happy are you?"

The World Happiness Report uses six factors as predictors of life evaluation: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption.

Edit: the video linked actually doesn't make much mention of the survey mentioned in the headline.

Sorry, I'm contributing to that.

I think the main issue is that Americans have been conditioned into being alone unless they spend money.

It's next to impossible to just 'hang out' with your friends these days. It always has to be something 'hype' or 'bandwagony' to matter.

This generation just needs to grow up and learn to think for itself.

Yeah... the fact that the country that perfected genocidal white supremacism was on a (so-called) "top 20 happiest countries list" tells me that list wasn't worth shit to start off with.

Thanks DNC