• Costa Ricans live long healthy lives, as long and healthy as people in the USA or Central Europe.
• There is no army, which frees up government money for social programs.
• Ticos also have solid social networks of friends, families and neighborhoods, and a sensible work-life balance.
• Costa Rica provides for equal treatment of women, and there is strong political participation by the population.
• Costa Rica achieves all of this
with one-quarter the ecological footprint of the United States.To quote liberally from the Happy Planet report:
“Survey data reveals two key features of Latin American culture.
"One is the presence of relatively un-materialistic aspirations and values; [the people are] much less concerned with material issues than… with friends and family.
"Secondly, social capital is particularly strong in the region. Civil society is very active, from religious groups to workers’ groups to environmental groups.
“Some have mocked the high levels of reported life satisfaction
in Latin American countries as belying a lack of knowledge of anything better. On the contrary, Latin America is perhaps more exposed to North American culture than anywhere else in the developing world. Yet somehow it has been more resistant to idolizing this lifestyle, or at least more able to be happy with its own way of life despite this influence [emphasis added]. Pura Vida…represents in itself an attitude about what is important.”Pura Vida indeed.
This information is sourced and edited for readability. We have taken every effort not to distort the study’s findings. A download of the original study is available http://www.happyplanetindex.org.
Love the better work/life balance and the equal treatment of females.
ReplyDeleteDo keep in mind, Costa Rica has no military, because the US is it's military. Not possible to make that go away in the US.