World well-being

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Epicurus called pleasure the greatest good; not self-indulgence or riotous living, but living a pleasant life. An annual Gallup worldwide poll is close to measuring the Epicurean idea. It is called the Gallup-Healthways Country Wellbeing index.

It is surprising to discover that, at or near the top come Panama, leader for the second year running, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. Switzerland was the leading European country. These countries are among the most likely in the world to report daily positive experiences such as smiling and laughing, feeling enjoyment, and feeling treated with respect each day”, says the report.

Gallup asked people in 145 countries how they felt about two aspects of each of its five elements of well-being:

Purpose: You like what you do every day. You learn or do something interesting every day.

Social: Someone in your life always encourages you to be healthy. Your friends and family give you positive energy every day.

Financial: You have enough money to do everything you want to do. In the last seven days, you have worried about money.

Community: The city or area where you live is a perfect place for you. In the last 12 months, you have received recognition for helping to improve the city or area where you live.

Physical: In the last seven days, you have felt active and productive every day. Your physical health is near-perfect. 

Sub-Saharan Africa was found to be the least thriving over all. The worst was Afghanistan. However, well-being doesn’t necessarily correlate with either GDP or conflict. The U.S., not unexpectedly, fell from No. 12 to No. 23 worldwide, as corporations took greater control over the country. (this post has been adapted from a report by NPR).

What do you think the most contented countries – Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. Switzerland – have in common?

More on Greece

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A regular reader and commenter has asked the following question:

Should Greece leave the Euro now and go it alone? Or stay and hope for reform, with the possibility that going it alone could hurt its economy even more? Also, how should a country like Britain respond to the crisis?

In a sense the EU is doing Greece a good turn if it makes the Greeks reform taxation, get people to retire at a sensible age, cut the bureaucracy, and stop bribery. Just to read a short list like that makes you realise what a gargantuan task it is. Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank has just said that debt relief for Greece was “uncontroversial”. The issue now is that the euro is too highly valued for Greece. They could do their own devaluation by reducing wages and costs, but they have already had years of penury. My wife (the economist) says she would have voted for the deal herself, simply because the unknown of leaving the euro and trying to reintroduce the drachma is terribly difficult and could make things even worse. Devalue? Devalue what, you ask! Well, eventually the drachma, but when and how are good questions – and no one seems to know quite how to do it. When the euro was introduced my wife said it would be a disaster. I supported it for political reasons. She was right. I guess this time I’d better listen to her!

As for Britain, the British also thought the euro would be a disaster, and stayed out. Let France and Germany, the two countries determined to go ahead, sort out the mess. British taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to contribute to something they had nothing to do with. I agree with Mr. Cameron.

Should childhood vaccination be compulsory?

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California Gov. Jerry Brown recently authorized one of the strictest vaccination rules in America, signing a bill that makes vaccinations mandatory for almost every school-age child in the state. Only children with certain medical conditions will now be allowed to sidestep the requirement; parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated will have to arrange home schooling for them. Ouch!

Naturally, this has been greeted with cries of “fascism!”. But the fact is that the anti- vaccination attitude owes its prevalence to the 1998 publication of a fraudulent research paper in the The Lancet that lent support to the later discredited claim that colitis and autism spectrum disorders are linked to the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Thanks to the mass media people believed the British doctor who wrote the Lancet article, even when he was exposed.  

Prevention of easily avoided illness benefits and protects the community and is consonant with the Epicurean ethos. Good work, Jerry!

Greece. Land of Epicurus, part 2

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Yesterday I discussed Greece, which owes its creditors about $330 billion, estimated to be 177 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. This post is about a sensible outcome to the crisis.

The euro should be wound up as gracefully as possible before the whole, great European project falls flat on its face, a victim of “the money is more important than people” syndrome espoused by the Right. It would in the longer term help Spain, Portugal and Italy as well as Greece, all of them teetering on the brink. The big problem here is not whether but how to swap currencies without catastrophe. It cannot be done over-night. One idea is to gradually introduce country-specific euros, say, Gr-euro, It-Euro, or Port-euro, eventually switching to new currencies with country-based central banks. Each country’s euro would float against the GerEuro (German) and find its own level at the current exchange rate. Another idea would be to have a 3-tier system, say, “very industrialised”, “semi-industrialised”, and “tourist-orientated”. Greece and Portugal would use the latter. It would cut down the number of currencies being re-created.

However, one of the main reasons for the euro in the first place was to facilitate German exports. Germans would not take kindly to the above idea. Mrs Merkel will not say it, but she is intent on dominating the EU and is quietly doing massive deals with Russia for oil and gas (see post two days ago) while millions have no jobs.

This reminds the historian that Hitler never needed to conquer the continent by force; he could have done it with voracious banks, a huge industrial economy and a woman in charge.

Epicurus would probably say that the Germans should have taken a haircut and the Greeks should enter the 21st Century, pronto. Moderation. Equality of sacrifice. Get along together. Amen. The IMF, which seems to agree about the haircut, could possibly end up saving the situation by rescuing Greece. But the long-term truth is that while we have so many nation states, so many languages, histories and traditions I can see no alternative to reverting to a simpler version of the EU based on the nation state, each with its central bank, until such time as people feel that national borders mean nothing and the EU system can treat every constituent part as merely a region of a single European country, rich or poor. The EU has over-reached, and has to pull back. But let’s not lose the basic idea.