Bento Box Bits of everything

Happiness Index

I found The Happy Planet Map from a yahoo news article. The gist of the article is that an organization found that there is no correllation between happiness and consumption. There's more too it than that, since the article takes the perspective of relating tech consumption with happiness; the tech-countries did not fare well when ranked based on "happiness."

Maybe it is all subjective because the study was based on people's perceptions of their own quality of life; but after poking around on the website, I tend to agree with the rankings. It seems that the countries with simpler lives are more happy.

This harks back to my views on the American consumerist lifestyle. We work work work, but for what? To buy more stuff? To make our lives easier? To have provide a better life for our children? But any of this make us happier?
Maybe we should start saving up to move away to another country and live simpler, happier lives. Then I'd just need to find a way to replace my tech-based hobbies...