Costa Rica kicks our ass when it comes to that elusive "quality of life" bit:
Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens.
Really, this is easy to grasp: America is light-years from being a "green" nation, despite the ceaseless invocation of this term.
America is still MOSTLY about greed and materialism and this is a direct route to unhappiness.
More over the jump.
This is about the Happy Planet Index
The Happy Planet Index reveals the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered
The index combines environmental impact with human well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which, country by country, people live long and happy lives. Learn about the ideas behind the HPI, how it is calculated, why we need it and what it can teach us.
Britain is "only halfway up" the HPI and America sits at a lowly 114th place with most African countries clustered at the bottom.
Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world, they live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint that is less than a quarter the size. The country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of what NEF calls "one-planet living": consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources.
Americans still consume about 1/4 of the planet's resources while making up about 5% of the overall population.
We work 2 jobs, 6 and 7 days a week, we vacation less, and now americans are more overwieght AND poorly nourished all at the same time. Only in America, eh?
Healthcare is part of the equation as well: I find reports telling me our Healthcare System is 38th in the world:
The top ten are France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, Malta, SIngapore, Spain, Oman, Austria, and Japan.
11-20 are Norway, Portugal, Monaco, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Switzerland.
21-30 are Belgium, Columbia, Sweden, Cyprus, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Morocco, and Canada.
31-40 are Finland, Austalia, Chile, Denmark, Dominica, Costa Rica, United States of America, Slovenia, Cuba and Brunei.
That article goes on to say that while 37th in the standings, Americans pay more than anybody else for the privilege of health care. That's something, isn't it?
I suppose we're still the "free-est" country, despite all the hours we work, and the vacations we don't take. Nearly a third of this country still enjoys freedom from forced healthcare.
Seriously, we aren't Number One in anything anymore except arms-dealing.
8 years of Bush rule capping off 30-some years of Republican efforts to dismantle the country have largely paid off.
But take heart: at least we aren't socialists!