Research Paper: Defining Happiness

Defining Happiness

                How happy are you with your life at this moment? Are you better than ever before, don’t care, or very unhappy? Before answering this question, how would you even define happiness? I became curious, when I studied a World Database of Happiness, of how people define happiness. The World Database of Happiness had 145 countries’ happiness score out of ten and the rankings. I chose first, the last, and the country at the midpoint to have a closer look and find out what made the gap so significant. There are major factors such as economy, education, and geographic factors that influence the level of satisfaction of life; nevertheless, each and every culture and nation displays different issues that hingers them from feeling completely satisfied.

                According to the World Database of Happiness, Iceland was the happiest nation on the planet. On the other extreme end, Tanzania was ranked to be the unhappiest country. While Iceland ranked first and Tanzania the 145^th, South Korea ranked the 73^rd, being right in between the two extreme ends. It is interesting that each of the three countries are from different continent, culture, and ethnicity. Studying the data aroused sudden pursuit of finding what made each country’s satisfaction score so different. I came up with factors that could possibly influence the score: GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, exports, literacy rate, religion, arable land, ethnicity, population, natural resource, total renewable water resource, education expenditures, and school life expectancy. From studying and analyzing the data, I trimmed them down to three most significant factors: economy, education, and geographic factors. (CIA World Fact Book)

                As probably supposed, Iceland had the highest GDP per capita out of the three countries; though, it wasn’t the highest of all nations. South Korea had relatively high GDP per capita compared to other countries that were in the neighboring range of satisfaction. In other words, the score of Korea was lower than countries with similar economic status. Tanzania’s GDP per capita was only 3.3% of Iceland and 5.2% of Korea. Korea earned the most money from export, 419 billion dollars, when Iceland earned 6.8 billion and Tanzania 2.5 billion (Country Reports.) By seeing that Korea’s position between Iceland and Tanzania is even on the happiness ranks but not on the economic means, I infer that economy, though some influence, doesn’t completely define happiness.

                Now let’s look at the educations of the three countries. Iceland’s literacy rate was 99% of the population above 15 years of age. Korea was 98% and Tanzanis 78%. Education expenditures and school life expectancy followed the same order. This order is complementary to the order of happiness but it deosn’t define happiness from what I learned from interviewing Jamie Kim, who has Korean passport. When asked to describe general life style in Korea, he said, “For students, studying and getting good grades are the biggest part of their lives.” He also said that people are very competitive due to the economic crisis and the effort to survive. Most students will generally say, “I’m unhappy” because they always have someone better than themselves and they are constantly battling to be smarter, better, and richer. He said that money seems like the center of many things and society demands better all the time. Obviously Korea has high standards of education, but it does not necessarily make people happier. Education helps the quality of life, but there are other issues that come along with it.

                The three countries have distinctively different geographical elements. Iceland is an island country, Korea is a peninsula, and Tanzania is an intercontinental nation. Tanzania has the most geographical advantage compare to the other two. Tanzania’s land area is nine times bigger than Korea and Iceland; though Korea has the most arable land. Tanzania’s natural resources include tin, iron ore, coal diamonds, gem stones, gold natural gas, and nickel. Unlike Tanzania, Korea and Iceland only has few natural resources such as geothermal power, graphite, lead, and coal. Iceland has the most renewable water resource because it’s an island country. Even though Tanzania is blessed with rich natural resources, they aren’t effectively developed enough to help the living standard of the people. In the interview with Ms. Marieth Kiiza, who holds Tanzanian passport, she explained the hardship the people face every day.
                “People from Tanzania have to walk about 5km to get water every day. They still use firewood to cook.” She said the people struggle to survive everyday because of the low wages and big families to support. She explained that Tanzania’s natural resources are kept undeveloped because of the ineffective and corrupted government. She provided corrupted government for the reason when asked for the reason for low happiness score. She also said the fact that the people can do nothing to change the lifestyle causes people to think they’re unhappy. She mentioned how Tanzanian people can be lazy and without motivation. She listed better leaders, more education, and more foreign aids as solutions to the problem. She believes that Tanzania has great potential and they just need a wakeup call to unite the country and work to be a better nation.

Now that we have looked at close details of each country, can you define Happiness? Iceland has the most money, Korea has the highest education, and Tanzania owns the most natural resources. Since there are so many factors that can influence how happy one feels, and since every person defined happiness differently, happiness can’t be measured by mere number or words. Although some factors might have some influence, perspective and attitude is what really decides how happy one satisfied one feels.