Thailand tops the world’s happiness survey

[webfact]

Thailand tops the world’s happiness survey

BANGKOK: -- Thailand was ranked as top of the world's happiest economies in a recent survey conducted by Bloomberg News.

According to Bloomberg, Thailand comes first in the list of 51 countries it surveyed.

Coming after in the first top five countries are Switzerland, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — four of the five countries are located in Asia.

Bloomberg said the said countries are relatively happy in terms of consumer friendliness.

The two factors that make consumers unhappy are inflation and unemployment, and the degree of happiness is calculated and ranked according to what Bloomberg referred to as the “misery index.”

On the said index, Thailand and Switzerland scored lower than 2.5, while Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were rated from 2.5 to 5.

The lower the misery index is, the happier the economy is, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg pointed out the surprising winner as a country that was not relatively rich compared to many others; the partial reason behind Thailand’s triumph was credited to its extremely low unemployment rate of 1 percent, which in turn kept the country from inflation; yet Thailand still has a long way to go before it reaches the living standards of more developed economies, it noted.

In the entire Europe region, Switzerland continues to lead the other countries when it came to economical happiness, despite the controversy surrounding the Swiss National Bank earlier this year was widely reported by the media.

According to the research done by economists, only 3.3 percent of the Swiss people may be out of a job this year, but the slight 0.9 percent drop in prices in 2015 may help when its currency surges in value; all elements making Switzerland the second happiest economy.

Third in the ranking, Japan has only recently loosened its grip in preventing deflation since the 1990’s, and there may be around 1 percent of deflation in the country this year. The unemployment rate has improved as well, dropping 0.1 percent from 3.6 to 3.5 in one year.

China is ranked number 7, as Bloomberg pointed out that it has found relief in both inflation and unemployment, boosting it forward two places compared to last year.

The United States is still facing issues from job loss rates — the world’s biggest economy is not the best in this field, but it is still ranked number eight among the 51 economies.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailand-tops-the-worlds-happiness-survey


-- Thai PBS 2015-03-05

[Cuchulainn]

Tell that to the farmers.

[ColdSingha]

in today's news.. biggest smiles, smallest penises, surely this can't be correlated?

[trogers]

How was happiness measured?

[uptheos]

How was happiness measured?

Not in penises.

[samsensam]

sure, if you put your head in the sand and ignore reality what's going to upset you?

ignorance is bliss

anyone here love thailand so much that they wish they had been born thai?!

[rasmus5150]

I think that Bloomberg have spoken to Prayuth's spindoctors. They are even better than "Chemical Ali" during the Gulf War.

[PatOngo]

Thailand's household debt rises fastest in Asia - Thailand News ...

Whatever makes you happy!

[phuketsub]

Happiness cannot be measured and it certainly not a trait that an economy can possess.

Hopefully there was more substance to the original report that the PBS editing team twisted from it..

[Costas2008]

How was happiness measured?

Don't you know?

They put a group of soldiers with their guns on the streets of Thailand to conduct the survey.

So they started stopping people and asking:

Is your life happy with us?

If it was you, what would you have answered?

[Fiddlesticks]

Ignorance is bliss!

[chainarong]

Quite obvious that nobody has spoken to the Thai's I know, not one of them is happy , matter of fact very unhappy, most are unemployed or in the military , however that's beside the point, they are still not happy, if they could they would travel west at the drop of a hat, stick that in your survey General.

[Nbarch]

Was this survey done by the same people who does Kim Jong Un?

(They do get good results - don't they)

[Chris Lawrence]

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_orwell.html#688UX6er7MJXlvGc.99

[phoenixdoglover]

"The two factors that make consumers unhappy are inflation and unemployment, and the degree of happiness is calculated and ranked according to what Bloomberg referred to as the “misery index."

The "misery index" calculated for Thailand is so low because the unemployment rate is unrealistically reported to be less than 1%.

If a credible unemployment number were ever developed for Thailand, the so-called "happiness" would plummet.

Here's one way the number is skewed, according to Bloomberg:"If, for instance, you lose your job as a bank teller and return home and lend a hand at your dad's farm for at least one hour a week, you are considered as employed."

I'm assuming that rule applies throughout the economy: Work 1 hour per week = employed.

[heybruce]

Bloomberg's "happiness" measurement is Ronald Reagan's old misery index, an invention of his when he was a candidate for president. He distanced himself from it when he became president--it made him look bad. I have no idea why Bloomberg resurrected it, they should know better.

It is a simple-minded economic measure--add unemployment to rate of inflation and you have the misery index. It ignores the fact that low inflation often coincides with low economic growth or recession--in fact a bout of deflation (a very bad thing) could significantly boost a countries happiness by this simplistic measure. Also, as phoenixdoglover pointed out, it does not measure underemployment, or take into account the kind of desperate employment people will take on to avoid starving in a country with no social safety net. Prostitution, scams of every description, and other elements of the underground economy are big contributors to this "happiness".

[Roadman]

The Junta must have run the world wide survey for them?

Edited March 5, 2015 by Roadman

[NeverSure]

More happiness endings than any other country.

[daveAustin]

If you really want to determine if people are happy, don't tell them, ask them. Unfortunately all you'd get here is a face-saving greng jai answer. It's just a stupid survey all round.

[jerojero]

Dribble. Low pay and resulting chronic poverty is off set by said low pay jobs, thus millions in Thailand are happy? Happier than any first world country? B. S.

[FireMedic]

Obviously they only interviewed Politicians and Police chiefs.......

[quidnunc]

"Bloomberg pointed out the surprising winner as a country that was not relatively rich compared to many others; the partial reason behind Thailand’s triumph was credited to its extremely low unemployment rate of 1 percent, which in turn kept the country from inflation; yet Thailand still has a long way to go before it reaches the living standards of more developed economies, it noted."

This is exactly wrong. Low unemployment rates actually spur inflation for the obvious reason that if labor is in so much demand, employers would have to raise pay in order to attract workers.

[soalbundy]

How was happiness measured?

with a tape measure,it's 4 inches long

[klauskunkel]

How was happiness measured?

in inches, the shorter...the happier

[Borzandy]

In Thailand, as long as the children can eat candies stuffed of palm oil everyone is happy.

[Cardiff1963]

Maybe they used posts on news sites as a measure when judging. And judging by some of the miserable posters on here you can see why the West scored so low.

[EnglishJohn]

Quite obvious that nobody has spoken to the Thai's I know, not one of them is happy , matter of fact very unhappy, most are unemployed or in the military , however that's beside the point, they are still not happy, if they could they would travel west at the drop of a hat, stick that in your survey General.

Try reading the article properly. The survey was international and done by Bloomberg, not any organisation in Thailand. However I doubt that will stop you spewing unwarranted vitriolic comments against the junta everywhere you can.

I had a friend just go back to the UK and he was amazed by how happy all the Thai people he saw in the local area are compared to people in the UK. However I don't think he visited any groups of whinging red-shirts whose freebies got cut by the coup so there may be exceptions.

[wabothai]

If that would be so, there would be no more need for the general.

[Yann55]

Is there a reliable study, somewhere, that establishes how alarmingly serious the situation is in Thailand with regard to alcoholism, and/or drugs among younger people, especially yaba, in the poor, rural areas ?

Just wondering how drunk or high the people were when they answered the questions of this survey ...

[Strangebrew]

Love the 1% unemployment figure guess begging and scam artist is now called a job.