I’ll bet I’m happier than than Joseph Kabila
November 1st, 2006 at 6:19 pm
In yet another clever technique to avoid homework, I found a website – The Happy Planet Index – that calculates happiness as a co-relative of environmental footprint. In other words: which country’s citizens derive the highest amount of satisfaction at the lowest environmental cost. Canada, it seems, is ranked 111. The United States is 150. Pretty bad when you consider that they were ranked out of 178. Maybe the meaning of life isn’t designer fashion and plasma television after all?
This site also has an online survey with which idividuals can calculate their own personal index. Naturally, I gave it a shot. I know myself well enough to know that I would probably fall a bit short of the Canadian average, but I was still surprised at the result:
“Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 20.5, which is similar to that of Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Well. Congo is ranked 175 (third from last). But at least I am ahead of Burundi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. But it gets worse! Not only am I miserable, but according to the results I have a higher than average life expectancy – I’ll be miserable, longer!
It may be time for another midlife crisis. Perhaps I should start by relocating to a higher ranked country. Interestingly, Costa Rica is ranked third in the index. Hmmm.
