But what is happiness? Is it just economic satisfaction, or chiefly economic satisfaction, which is the way economists generally use it? According to the world's wisdom traditions, happiness in the highest sense is associated historically with being at peace, which is a considered "spiritual" rather than physical in the sense that happiness is not equatable with physical pleasure or material satisfaction.
There is growing dissatisfaction with GDP, both as the supposedly dominant economic indicator internationally and also as actually representative of a country's welfare. For example, it ignores distribution. Inspired by the king of Bhutan, there is a present trend toward the development of an economics of happiness and the creation of a happiness index. This necessitates defining "happiness" technical for use in theory construction and identifying the factors that affect happiness quotient. On this version of the index linked to, the Nordic countries are the happiest, with Finland in first place.
Abraham Maslow was one of the first to approach this scientifically. He is remembered as the founder of humanistic psychology in reaction to B. F. Skinner's approach to behavioristic psychology based on stimulus-response mechanism and a co-founder of transpersonal psychology also wrote on motivation theory and its application to management., e.g., in his work on "eupsychian management," a term he coined. He is best known for his hierarchy of needs, expressed in the form of a pyramid of ascending levels from the physical through the psychological to the "spiritual" in the sense of self-actualization.
A fully self-actualized person is no longer driven by need but has arrived at a point that is beyond being needy. This is being at peace. It doesn't require great wealth or even great comfort. Some of the happiest people are "poor" in material possession but they are also "poor in spirit," in the sense that they are self-fulfilled. This is Aristotle's meaning of eudaimonia as what human beings desire. Translating Aristotle into Maslow's terms, happiness is the byproduct of unfolding self-actualization.
Interestingly, Latin American is the continent where the greatest percentage of people reporting being at peace are found. It neither a place of prosperity or one that is known as "spiritual" from the humanistic perspective. But these people seem to be doing something right.
Gallup interviewed adults in 122 countries across the planet. They found that 34% of people on Earth “always” feel at peace, while 39% “often” do, 17% “rarely” do, and 5% “never” do.
Nicaragua came in first place, with 73% of its population reporting it “always” feels at peace.
Gallup noted that “Latin American countries dominate the ‘always at peace’ list worldwide”.
There are 14 countries in the world where the majority of the population “always” feels at peace. A staggering nine of these 14 are in Latin America.
Nicaragua is No. 1, followed by El Salvador at No. 3, Panama at No. 4, Honduras at No. 5, Paraguay at No. 6, Dominican Republic at No. 7, Uruguay at No. 8, Colombia at No. 12, and Mexico at No. 14.
Geopolitical Economy (new site spun off from Multipolarista)
Nicaragua is world’s #1 country where citizens feel at peace, Gallup poll shows
Nicaragua is world’s #1 country where citizens feel at peace, Gallup poll shows
Ben Norton