From the article:
A fading mining boom may be taking the gloss off Australia's resource-rich economy but the country has retained the title of happiest industrialized nation in the world.Obviously, the OECD survery does not include a category for "most chronic set of Right wing whingers who are convinced the country is in an economic and social disaster when it isn't", because that would have brought the overall rating down.
That's according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Better Life Index, which ranked the world's developed economies on criteria such as jobs, income, environment and health...
The OECD survey of 34 industrialized nations didn't award an overall top ranking. But if each of the 11 categories in the survey is given equal weight, Australia's cumulative rank rises to No. 1, according to the OECD website.
Two things in the survey surprise me:
While the OECD survey found that Australians rank their life-satisfaction at 7.2 out of 10, higher than the average of 6.6, the reading is below levels recorded in Mexico, Norway and neighboring New Zealand.What makes Mexicans so happy? The image of the country we have now is one of economic stagnation and extreme danger from the drug trade criminals. In fact, what makes New Zealander's happy? A large number want to live here.
And the other thing, more on the upside:
While locals complain of living costs, Australian households on average spend 19% of their disposable income on keeping a roof over their heads, below the OECD's average of 21%. And 85% of Australian respondents said they were in good health, well above the survey average of 69%.Our housing costs are not as expensive as everyone seems to think? That's a surprise. (And the health figures probably have something to do with universal health care, one suspects. The Tea Party inspired nutters of Catallaxy like to call Medicare "socialism" and think it should be abolished.)
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