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World's Happiest Places - Forbes.com
Where in the world do people feel most content with their lives?
According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)... happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.
Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands rated at the top of the list, ranking first, second and third, respectively. Outside Europe, New Zealand and Canada landed at Nos. 8 and 6, respectively. The U.S. did not crack the top 10. Switzerland placed seventh and Belgium placed tenth.
nrc.nl - International - Opinion - Going Dutch? Not So Fast!
NRC columnist Heleen Mees begs to disagree with Russell Shorto's raving article in The New York Times about the benefits of living in the Dutch welfare state. Mees, who lives in New York, has recently published a book in which she argues that European welfare states would do well to look to opportunity-based societies like New York for inspiration.
Going Dutch - How I Learned to Love the European Welfare State. - NYTimes.com
while the top income-tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, the numbers are a bit misleading. “People coming from the U.S. to the Netherlands focus on that difference, and on that 52 percent,” said Constanze Woelfle, an American accountant based in the Netherlands whose clients are mostly American expats. “But consider that the Dutch rate includes social security, which in the U.S. is an additional 6.2 percent. Then in the U.S. you have state and local taxes, and much higher real estate taxes. If you were to add all those up, you would get close to the 52 percent.”
What Finland can teach America about true luxury
As I spent more time in Helsinki, my own notion of the luxuries available in Finland expanded to include more than just the quiet pleasures of a cabin getaway. Finnish cities are filled with universally well-maintained and high-quality schools, hospitals, buses, trains, and parks. While most Finns might never be able to own a well-appointed SUV or a big house, they value the less-tangible assets they do have, which add up to quality of life and peace of mind.
Finland doesn't pay lip service to providing a level playing field for all its citizens. It really does give the vast majority of its citizens a fair and equal chance in life, in a way that the US just doesn't, no matter how much Americans like to think it does.
Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? - TIME
At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
The Raw Story | Portugal's drug decriminalization 'bizarrely underappreciated': Greenwald
...the strongest evidence in Portugal that supports drug decriminalization is the declining usage of drugs in the crucial 15-19 age group.
In every single drug category, with the exception of the new drugs that have come into popular usage since 2001, like ketamine and GHB, teen drug use has declined. The biggest drug category declines were seen in marijuana, which saw teen drug use slip from just over 10 percent in 2001 to 6 percent in 2006.
Johann Hari: We need to stop being such cowards about Islam - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
In Europe, we are finally abolishing the lingering blasphemy laws that hinder criticism of Christianity. But they are being succeeded by a new blasphemy law preventing criticism of Islam – enforced not by the state, but by jihadis.
Warren Ellis » War Haunted
These are, I’m told, the work of one Sergei Larenkov, and they are wonderful. He’s reshot WW2-era photographs in the present day, from their original perspectives, and then faded the original in.
YouTube - Irreligion & Scandinavian Society- Phil Zuckerman Part1 of 2
"Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment"
Freethought radio interview with Phil Zuckerman on his new book that looks into the secular scandinavian countries.
Retro Futurism: Maps Imagine Post-War Europe Without Germany
During World War II, some fringe thinkers advocated for the total dissolution of Germany. They left us with maps that depict an alternate Europe where Germany ceded all land to its victorious neighbors.
Op-Ed Columnist - Flush With Energy - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent. (And it didn’t h
US close to recession, Europe could pull through: OECD - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says the US economy is teetering on the brink of recession, but the eurozone economy can pull through the global financial crisis without special measures.
What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart? - WSJ.com
Finland's teens score extraordinarily high on an international test. American educators are trying to figure out why.
5 Myths About Sick Old Europe - washingtonpost.com
Not so long ago, American pundits and economic analysts were snidely touting U.S. economic superiority to the "sick old man" of Europe. What a difference a few months can make.
Belgium | Time to call it a day | Economist.com
When it was created in 1831, it served more than one purpose. It relieved its people of various discriminatory practices imposed on them by their Dutch rulers. And it suited Britain and France to have a new, neutral state rather than a source of instabili
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