How happy are we?

I wish I could honestly say based on objective data that I live in the best nation in the world! Unfortunately, based on the data, I cannot say we are at the top. At one time we had the largest GDP, but now the European Union has eclipsed us in financial horsepower. Is it more important to be financially wealthy or to feel peaceful, enjoy a quality standard of living, and feel elated about having a joyous life? I personally choose the later, because peace and joy are my only ultimate goals in life. The ultimate goal of peace and joy I believe derives from being loved, feeling financially secure, enjoying good health, having a clear sense of purpose, and giving to others.
According to Wikipedia, The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in July 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI), which are seen as not taking sustainability into account. In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy. Furthermore, it is believed that the notion of sustainable development requires a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing those goals.
According to a 2009 HPI, the people of the U.S. are 114th down the list, and only enjoy 40% the happiness of countries such as Costa Rica, Cuba, and Jamaica. Hugo Chavez the populist leader of Venezuela has catapulted his country into a position of 36; being 1.7 times as happy as Americans. There are some folks living in the U.S. that for reasons of ego and pride delude themselves into believing that the U.S. is superior. I have no control over those folks who choose to put themselves in an emotional safety zone by deluding themselves into believing in Mother Goose, Heaven and Hell, Noah’s Ark, that America is supreme, and that 19 Muslims and burning jet fuel brought down the World Trade Center Towers. I also do not believe that a total dose of just Conservatism or Liberalism will cure all of our countries ills. Having a top heavy Military Industrial Complex, the highest obesity rates, a dwindling middle class, high inmate incarceration, one percent of the upper echelon possessing over one third of the wealth, and excessive narcissistic materialism is not a road paved to a quality nation and a happy populace.
Americans are less happy today than they were 30 years ago, thanks to longer working hours, and a deterioration in the quality of their relationships with friends and neighbors, according to an Italian study. Researchers presenting their work at a conference on "policies for happiness" at Italy's Siena University honed in on two major forces that boost happiness-- higher income and better social relationships -- and put a dollar value on them. Based on that, they concluded a person with no friends or social relations with neighbors would have to earn $320,000 more each year than someone who did to enjoy the same level of happiness. And while the average American paycheck had risen over the past 30 years, its happiness-boosting benefits were more than offset by a drop in the quality of relationships over the period. "The main cause is a decline in the so-called social capital -- increased loneliness, increased perception of others as untrustworthy and unfair," said Stefano Bartolini, one of the authors of the study. "Social contacts have worsened, people have less and less relationships among neighbors, relatives and friends."
David Swanson in his oped writes: “The past 30 years have seen tremendous growth in the United States in productivity and wealth, and yet we don't all seem very appreciative. In fact, as Yale political scientist Robert Lane has documented, surveys have found Americans' assessment of their level of happiness declining significantly. The same is not the case in other developed countries. The United States contains less than 5 percent of the world's population and spends 42 percent of the world's health care expenses, and yet Americans are less healthy than the residents of nearly every other wealthy nation and a few poor ones as well, as documented by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka of the University of Washington .

What's going on? We spend more on criminal justice and have more crime. How can that be? We're richer and have more poverty. Why is that? Research also shows that a country's murder rate varies with its inequality, not its overall wealth or its criminal justice spending.

Sam Pizzigati, author of a new book called "Greed and Good," thinks he has both an answer and a solution to these and several other riddles. Pizzigati focuses on the extreme increase in inequality that the United States has seen over the past generation. The Federal Reserve Board has documented gains by America 's wealthiest 1 percent of more than $2 trillion more than everyone in America 's bottom 90 percent combined. We are now the most unequal wealthy nation on earth and have reversed the relationship we had to Europe when the founders of this country rejected aristocracy. Today Europeans come to the United States to marvel at the excesses of wealth beside shameful poverty.

Many of us would like to lift up those at the bottom. Few of us want to bring down those at the top. Pizzigati argues that you cannot do one without the other, because the super wealthy will always have the political power to avoid contributing to bringing the bottom up. This will leave it to the middle class to assist those less fortunate even as their own situations are slipping and their concept of success. The middle class won't want to do this, and instead will support policies that benefit the super wealthy.

America has positive attributes such as our constitutional rights, the ability to create wealth, beautiful geography, ethnic diversity, freedom of religion, and a history of optimism, resourcefulness, and creativity. Unfortunately unless these positive qualities of our country can be enjoyed by all of our citizens without regard to economic, ethnic, or gender status we are not truly a great nation. When the majority of Americans believe that their government is not representative of what is in the best interests of the middle class and those in need, but rather represents through the two major political parties the interests of the top one to five percent of the wealthy elite than we are again deluding ourselves.
Through the fear, corruption, and deception by the Military Industrial Complex we are coerced into spending over one half of our federal budget on defense related expenditures. The last time that someone received peace and joy through military spending they owned large interests in Boeing, Raytheon, The Carlyle Group, Halliburton, BlackWater, and other parasitic defense contractors and financiers.
Instead of trying to really enjoy the organic spirituality within ourselves, through nature, art, music, and our innate sensuality, we seek inadequate placebos such as material purchases and worship in corrupt religious institutions. Instead of learning to truly love and accept our inner self value without the judgment by others, we default to our outer superficial world of off center neurotics and those people that are many times less emotionally healthy than ourselves. How many of us continue to nurture destructive co-dependant relationships that do not support our sense of health and wholeness? How many of us prescribe excessive eating, alcohol, and drugs as a means to medicate our unhappiness. Making changes from destructive behavior to positive behavior that is supported by self love and a feeling of inner balance is no easy task for any of us.
What would our America look like if we greatly reduced military spending and used those economic, material, creative, and intellectual resources to support more art, education, environmental aesthetics, better food, healthier roads to spirituality, and improved our mental and physical healthcare? I believe that just making this improved change in this one sector of priority, that we could greatly advance our happiness. So one should take pause and reflect before boasting that we are the greatest nation in the world.