Nine out of ten Dutch people consider themselves lucky
Almost nine out of ten adults in the Netherlands say they are happy and 3 percent unhappy. The percentage that is happy has been stable since 2013. Working people are more often happy than benefit recipients. Statistics Netherlands announced this yesterday on the international day of happiness.
The survey is based on the Social Cohesion and Well-being Survey, which was conducted in 2017 and in which more than 7 people participated. They indicated on a scale of 1 to 10 how happy they were. A score of 7 or higher is 'happy', a score of 5 or 6 is 'not happy, not unhappy' and scores of 1 to 4 are 'unhappy'.
Health, relationships, work
Men and women reported being happy equally in 2017, as did young people and older people. People with a Dutch background are more often happy than people with a non-Western migration background. People with a Western migration background are just as likely to be happy as people with a Dutch background. High-educated people are more often happy than low-educated people. Statistics Netherlands research shows that good health and social relationships in particular are strongly related to happiness. In addition, having a job is important. Based on this research, it cannot be determined whether having a job makes someone happy, whether happy people are more likely to be employed, or whether both are the result of other factors. All three statements may be true.
Benefit recipients are eight times more likely to be unhappy than workers
Just over 9 out of 10 people in paid work felt happy, and just under two-thirds of benefit recipients. 1,5 percent and 12 percent respectively say they are unhappy. The fact that benefit recipients are less often happy than working people is related to their health, their finances and their daily activities. The difference in household income is less important for the difference in perceived happiness, as is the lower satisfaction with the social life of benefit recipients.
While 84 percent of workers are satisfied with their work, 52 percent of benefit recipients are satisfied with their daily activities. The differences are greater for satisfaction with household finances: 80 percent of working people are satisfied with this, compared to 36 percent of benefit recipients.
People with a disability are less often happy than the unemployed
There are large differences in perceived happiness within the group of benefit recipients. 59 percent of the disabled say they are happy, and 82 percent of the unemployed. This is related to the fact that the first group has less good health.
The self-employed are more satisfied with their work than employees
Employees are just as likely to be happy as the self-employed, although the self-employed are more likely to be satisfied with their work than employees. The self-employed are just as likely to be satisfied with their financial situation, but they are more concerned about their financial future than employees.
Funny, according to the article, the Dutch are overflowing with happiness. Just below that is a related article with the headline: 34% Dutch people worried about their own finances! Apparently there is such a thing as “anxious to be happy”! You laugh your ass off at these kinds of investigations. Fits well in the picture of the crime figures, which, according to all official bodies and politicians, are also declining in the Netherlands because the cells are empty. The fact that 60% of the Dutch no longer file a declaration because 80% of the declarations end up in the drawer and only 20% of the remaining 10% are resolved, of course has nothing to do with empty cells. What a flatterland!
You are clearly the 10th out of 10
Immediately after the liberation in 1945, when the Netherlands lay in ruins, you hardly heard anyone complain, apart from those people who had family members or friends to mourn.
Although most Dutch people had much less than in the present time, most of them had no time to complain because of the build-up.
Moreover, most of them were very happy that they had finally got rid of the occupier, so that they could mind their own economic future in peace.
In the 50s, no one thought to vote for a right-wing populist party out of dissatisfaction.
Why, everyone still had fat in their memories, that something like this can end in great misery.
Willem Drees made sure that even those who did not want to or could not work received an AOW benefit in their old age, so that no one would fall into poverty in their old age.
What our ancestors thought impossible became reality over the next few decades, so that almost everyone drove a car, or at least could afford to be mobile in some other way.
A lot has also changed indoors, so that nowadays almost everyone has a modern oven, washing machine, TV, and even a computer, not to mention a modern smartphone.
Even for most workers today, traveling the world by plane is no longer an impossibility.
All things that our ancestors could only dream of, usually with long and hard physical labor.
And yet in the present day we see people, who apparently never got these much worse times mediated, so that they almost chronically whine.
And I am not talking about those who have lost their financial rudder through illness, disability, or innocent unemployment, but about those people who often complain and whine chronically, without having contributed much to this society themselves.
A society of a country, which is certainly not perfect everywhere, but still counts among the best in the world in terms of social services.
No, in the past people did not have a TV, computer, internet or smartphone.
But you couldn't complain that you didn't have that either, because it didn't exist.
It was therefore not experienced as a much worse time than now, due to the lack of correct visions of the future.
I once had an economics/historical textbook, which also started with a list of things where we had to tick whether our grandfather had it as a child and whether we had it now. I can still remember the savings account, a transistor radio, and my own bedroom. Well, bingo of course. Grandpa used to have a piggy bank, the transistor had not yet been invented, and as the eldest of 12 children, the house was just too small for his own room. So oh, oh, oh, how good we had it.
But of course that had little to do with (the distribution of) wealth.
A computer with internet is really not a luxury these days, even people entitled to social assistance cannot reasonably meet the conditions for retaining benefits without such a thing.
A washing machine is no longer a luxury now that we are doing so well that women also have to generate income to keep their heads above water.
And because we always have to play the best boy in the class, the government needs so many (in)direct taxes that workers on an annual basis actually only start earning something for themselves after the summer recess.
Even if you can make ends meet, you can complain about that as far as I'm concerned.
Dear fransamsterdam, in my above response I just tried to make it clear that some people complain more than our ancestors in the present time, while most are fully equipped compared to them.
That people in the time of our ancestors did not experience that time as much worse may certainly be true.
But from the current point of view, it would look good on many complainers, a comparison can be made here. And not immediately seek refuge with their dissatisfaction in certain parties that certainly do not improve this.
Social benefits, which I would certainly not want to withhold from a truly needy person, are earned not from a government, but from the working masses who go about their work every day.
And this can cause, among other things, with rising claims, that many people, like you write this, only start their own Earnings after the summer recess.
From such a point of view, may people not be a little bit more satisfied, or is complaining and nagging more applied here?
So someone who gives a 7 on the scale of 1 to 10 is classified in the category 'happy'.
I would rather say that such a person is apparently 30% unhappy and that this should be looked at.
Suppose someone gives his own health a 7. And then the doctor says: 'Good, you are healthy. Next one!'
It's only a small step from here and we're in the middle of the sixes mentality.
Yes dear people here, now I wonder what it would be like in Belgium, I myself am a Flemish person.
I wonder where do they get the information.
I'm going to be a mouthpiece for Belgium, I can't conclude anything else who is happy in Belgium, has one
good job, some savings, can go on vacation, has good health, and a pleasant
family.
Well, those are all factors that SHOULD make a person happy.
From my personal experiences in Belgium, that's all nonsense.
In Flanders they say that happiness is in the small things, and that is true.
I would rather say, how lucky I am to have good health, to have a good job,
that I can buy things I want etc…….., there is a big difference between 2 words LUCK AND
HAPPY.
Allow me to write something about myself, I have enough money to live, don't have millions, what me
gives me a happy feeling is to hear a bird chirping, to see flowers bloom, to go into the silent nature,
having a pet that barks you good morning in the morning, seeing a child playing in the yard, just
simple things, and that makes a person feel happy.
But alas, that all becomes history and why.
Well, we live in a materialistic world, and there is nothing to be found in such a world
of I am happy.
In summary, May we speak of being happy in such a world, no in my opinion, let me
me use the word luck that i can , and i can.
I personally will never complain, have never been short of anything, all I have I have worked for, and need
never look behind my shoulders, and by that I mean I have no debts and no enemies,
and never been jealous of my neighbor, you see.
As for me, I can say that I have had happy times, and am now fortunate to have such and such
can do.
And that doesn't have to be more.