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Interesting things that I read today:
- An article suggesting Danes are some of the most indebted people in the world
- The same article stating Denmark has 'statistically' the happiest population in the world
- An article stating that GDP in the UK had grown by 1.9% in 2013
- An article showing customer satisfaction with businesses had generally improved in the UK
I also watched another episode of Season One of The Wire.
All of these concern two things: money, and the lack/ surfeit of it, and happiness (or in #BizTalk which is basically awful all you hashtaggers).
Does money equal happiness? Is it that simple? Can you measure happiness? Or rather, does it simply make us behave n different ways that result in more positive outcomes?
One doesn't appear to equal the other. Take Denmark. Danes pay the highest taxes in the world, but only earn the sixth highest salary. Effectively, they're losing something, somewhere. It's obviously possible that they get it back in kind - a kind of BIK - from their government through safe and secure neighbourhoods and borders, excellent housing, a flexible labour market and great health care. But where?
The HPI (or Happy Planet Index) seems a good place to start. That's got some big name fans - Zac Goldsmith, for one, although he seems a bit nuts. This looks at subjective well-being, ecological footprint, and life expectancy. Here, Denmark is ranked first on subjective well-being. Britain is ranked 19th.
It's when you look at GDP that it gets interesting. There's approximately 62 million British people, and they generate $35,866 per capita (or £21,641.70 by today's XE comparison) - just over 75% of what US makes in ratio terms.
Denmark, however, generates $40,163 per capita - or 85% of the profit generated by the US, in ratio terms - for its population of 5.5 million people. So 10% more appears to count for a lot, based on the HPI.
What about that great fear factor: after poverty, people are afraid of death. Denmark has one doctor per 294 of its population - by comparison, the Telegraph laments EC figures that state there's 2.71 docs per 1000 people in the UK. Denmark's figure is 3.40 - less than one better. Is that such a big deal?
Denmark spends approximately 9.8% of its GDP on healthcare - at least according to Wikipedia. The UK spent approximately £170 billion on healthcare in 2011, or 9.3% of its budget. Does .5% make such a big dfference?
What about quality of life? In 2012 the average Dane worked 1546 hours over the course of the year - or, assuming he gets five weeks holiday and weekends off, that's about six and a half hours per day. Wow!
By comparison the average UK worker did 1654 hours in 2012 - using the same figures, that's about seven hours per day. There's basically almost nothing in it - again, the only really big difference really does appear to be money, and how much of it people have.
The other interesting element at play here is how happy customers are with businesses. You might not be surprised to learn the least favourable satisfaction scores this year were generated by energy and utility companies - Ed Miliband has clearly been doing his homework.
By contrast, the only major group to have bounced back from declining scores was... banks and building societies. Weird, right? Even though I can testify from first hand and professional experience that some banks are making strenuous efforts to improve their products and services, that is a big jump in just 12 months. Link that in to the widely reported news that in 2013 the UK's GDP grew by 1.9%, taking it back to pre-recession levels, and there seems to be a pattern developing.
To return to one of the main ideas at the start then - do people make better decisions when they have more breathing room financially, and does this help achieve a snowball effect?
Looking at the opposite side of the coin, there is
some scientific evidence that quick access to cash with little attention to creditworthiness tends to lead to a decrease in self control, increasing the chance of default. This can have an effect on mental health and result in depression, which is just one of many symptoms of poverty.
In conclusion:
How people achieve a constant state of happiness in an ever-changing economy is a harder question - and many people might not like the answer that comes to mind.
2 comments:
budget /= GDP wrt spending (on healthcare or anything else), & GDP not v useful for this sort of comparison (or in general, imo) because it ignores income distribution (& i wld wager there's a fair few more billionaires distorting the picture in the UK than in denmark)
also that 'scientific study' is just statistical analysis of a self-reporting survey, & doesn't argue that easy credit &c. causes lack of self-control so much as point out that lack of self-control is positively correlated w/ 'sub-optimal' decisions wrt credit & indebtedness. basically ends up suggesting "mb wonga isn't such a hot idea" w/ less pizzazz than justin welby.
also individuals don't default! anyway, i think the spirit level is v pertinent to this
Good points. Difficult to disassociate '1%' from income pp as in most official statistics they're silently present, pulling upward on overall. Cause of indebtedness also v difficult to objectively prove as it generally involves subjective analysis of individual/group circumstances, interviews etc although I'd cop to the +ve correlation argument. I need to add more in this week really. Seems to have caught an awful lot of attention which might be good...
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