Why does a serious essayist like you write about happiness?
Because, beyond self-help charlatanism, science is progressing which, empirically, investigates the satisfaction of humans.
And why are you interested in this science?
Because when I was reporting on the uprisings in Latin America and the Arab world, I studied the personal satisfaction surveys of 137 countries and found that access to technology was increasing for the majority, but so was their discontent.
What makes happy countries happy?
That was the question I asked myself.
Acemoğlu told me that they are countries without an extractive caste and with efficient institutions.
Individual attitude also counts: those who declare themselves optimists, according to the US Academy of Sciences, live six years longer on average than pessimists.
Is the optimist just an ill-informed pessimist?
Martin Seligman, pioneer of positive psychology, claims that we suffer from genetics inherited from our ancestors that in caves was evolutionarily useful, because it deterred us from taking excessive risks with predators, but today it holds us back.
And has evolutionary intelligence made us more prosperous, free and optimistic?
To counteract this innate tendency to pessimism we can intelligently exercise optimism by learning to internalize what is positive in our lives.
Aren't the poor countries - say many aid workers - also the happiest?
Only if you count all the “moments when you feel happy”; and in Latin countries we declare more joyful moments than anyone else.
Maybe happiness is not moments?
Don't confuse the party with happiness, because when we are asked the other way around: "How many times have you felt distressed, unhappy, unhappy...?", Latin Americans also come first.
Is happiness more than just joy?
It is impossible to be happy without a minimum income and covered housing, education, healthcare...
And after covering the basics - explains Maslow's pyramid - do we aspire to the spiritual?
Once this primary well-being has been achieved, the increase in income no longer provides an increase in happiness...
From here does happiness follow a diminishing marginal benefit function?
...And we find that it gives more happiness to treasure experiences than money and property.
Only a fool confuses value with price.
The quality of human experiences, moreover, does not depend on their cost.
Why do young people tend to report less satisfaction than people over 60?
The declaration of well-being is greater in childhood and continues until 35, falling until 55, in which it recovers to exceed the initial level of childhood at 60.
50 are mortgages, children, divorces...?
Between the ages of 35 and 55 you have to pay for housing, children's education, all their expenses and face an increasingly demanding and not always increasingly well-paid job.
From 40, dreams collide with reality and the future is already waning?
On the other hand, after 60 there is no more frustrated ambition or broken plans and dreams and you may have learned to appreciate what you have achieved.
Shouldn't happiness ultimately consist in a stoic not expecting too much?
Nordics are less obsessed with status than less happy countries.
Have they learned that happiness depends on what I - and not others - think of me?
In short: rather than being satisfied with what you have, it is learning to appreciate what you have.
How do you learn to appreciate what you have?
I had a serious operation and now I'm happy just because almost nothing hurts anymore.
Does religion give or take away happiness?
People who go to church are as happy as those who gather on Sundays to collect stamps. What makes them happy is community life. And in this, the Nordics also beat us in number and quality.
Wasn't the Hispanic friendlier?
Denmark has 6 million inhabitants and 97 philatelic associations; Mexico has 125 million inhabitants and barely 30.
"Civil society", the Catalans call it.
And another well-being multiplier is nature: green areas and open air; and, of course, sex in all its diversity...
And combine it all: sex in the woods with philately and a good bank account?
You can only do it in a safe country: Science left 17,000 wallets lying on the street in several countries: the Danes returned 82% to the police; the Spanish, 58%; Americans, 53%, and Mexicans, 18%...
Because?
In Mexico, no one gives a found wallet to a policeman who they know will keep it.
Without an efficient state there is no happiness?
In Cuba and other totalitarianisms you have to protect yourself from the State to avoid being miserable.
