by banknotelover

Created on: May 05, 2009

For a long, long time, people have said that money can't buy you everything. A non-exhaustive list of things that money cannot buy would include love, happiness, time etc.

Then, are the rich really unhappy and the poor really happy? Let's check. As a gauge, I would use the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The country with the highest nominal GDP is the United States of America. By the HPI, it is ranked 150th. Japan has the second-highest nominal GDP, and it is ranked 95th by the HPI. Third on the list by nominal GDP is the People's Republic of China, which is ranked 31st by the HPI.

By contrast, the country with the lowest nominal GDP is Kiribati, which is not on the HPI. Second-lowest by nominal GDP is So Tom and Prncipe, which is 22nd on the HPI. Third-lowest by nominal GDP is Tonga, which is 24th on the HPI. Fourth-lowest (since the country with the lowest GDP does not exist on the HPI) by nominal GDP is Dominica, which is an amazing 4th on the HPI. So, is it really true that the rich are unhappy and the poor are happy? Let's find out the other way.

Vanuatu is ranked 1st by the HPI. Yet, Vanuatu is ranked 170th in terms of nominal GDP. Columbia is 2nd by the HPI, but is 38th in terms of nominal GDP. Costa Rica is next in terms of the HPI, but is 83rd in terms of nominal GDP. Lowest on the HPI is Zimbabwe, which is not on the International Monetary Fund's list of countries by nominal GDP (which I have used so far, and compiles 179 countries, by the way) but is 145th out of 190 on the CIA World Factbook's list. Second-lowest on the HPI is Swaziland, which is 149th by nominal GDP. Burundi is third-lowest on the HPI, which is 161st by nominal GDP.

From this analysis, I can tell you that if you live in a rich country, you may not be happy and vice versa; if you are happy, you may not be living in a rich country, and if you are unhappy, it is very likely you live in a poor country. Zimbabwe has been rocked by hyperinflation and cholera in recent years, and its people are struggling to live. If you live in Zimbabwe, you wouldn't be very happy, I guess. Swaziland is facing a HIV/AIDS crisis, and yet its king, Mswati III, wanted to buy a private jet costing US$45 million for his mother and himself using public funds, when one-third of his people were HIV-positive and struggling to live (as is the case in Zimbabwe). Burundi has been through civil wars, and corruption is rampant, education is difficult to access, 80% of the population live in poverty, more than half of Burundi's

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>