The Happiest People
While it’s pretty difficult to measure happiness in any tangible way, in every study and report that attempts to do so, Costa Ricans come out on top.
What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.
I’m not antimilitary. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.
In Costa Rica, rising education levels also fostered impressive gender equality so that it ranks higher than the United States in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. This allows Costa Rica to use its female population more productively than is true in most of the region. Likewise, education nurtured improvements in health care, with life expectancy now about the same as in the United States — a bit longer in some data sets, a bit shorter in others.
Rising education levels also led the country to preserve its lush environment as an economic asset. Costa Rica is an ecological pioneer, introducing a carbon tax in 1997. The Environmental Performance Index, a collaboration of Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks Costa Rica at No. 5 in the world, the best outside Europe.
I woke up this morning to see fresh snow on the ground and hear swirling winds beat against my building’s walls, so I’d be pretty pumped to be in tropical Costa Rica right now, for sure. But I’m not sure I’d want to be in Colombia or other war-torn Central and South American countries, and I hear the weather there is pretty nice, too.
The difference? Costa Rica emphasizes education and health for its citizens, not guns for its military.
Sometimes I wonder if people are actually paying attention to all the gems Kristof produces. He’s like a veritable factory of “how to make America and the world better” tips. I’d say get this guy a political career, but he I’m afraid he isn’t motivated by ego and self-worth.
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