Although Lithuanian youth are the happiest in the world, other people’s lives are depressing: the reason is clear

by times news cr

2024-04-29 03:42:54

The modest happiness of seniors is not surprising, but the fact that Lithuanian youth are the happiest in the world and surpass even the Scandinavians, who are generally the most satisfied with life, is so astonishing that it even makes you question the study itself.

One way or another, the researchers took into account the criteria of the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, social support, healthy lifestyle, opportunities to choose, and the level of corruption.

The research was carried out by solid institutions – the Gallup agency and Oxford University’s Wellbeing Center, the methodology was prepared by prominent scientists of economics, sociology, psychology, and data analysis, so the scientific validity of the published happiness index seems to be beyond doubt.

The reasons for the seemingly suspicious gap between generations should be sought in the feelings of different layers of society, social psychology, and the historical past.

In the overall happiness index for all age groups, the first few places are occupied by the Scandinavian countries, and the Finns are in the lead for the seventh time in a row.

According to experts, such high places are ensured by the idea of ​​a welfare state that has been implemented in reality: excellent social guarantees, social care, trust in state institutions, low level of corruption.

The pursuit of social justice also has an influence – in these countries there are no huge differences between the richest and the lowest-income sections of society.

Another characteristic of the Scandinavian region has been noticed – the harmonious coexistence of all age groups, the society in these countries is self-confident, neither the young nor the elderly feel discriminated against, those with fewer opportunities for social life do not fear that they will be left to their own devices in the event of trouble, people here have a strong respect for each other.

According to Lithuanian experts, this index does not so much describe a person’s sense of happiness, as it shows the perception of life satisfaction compared to past realities and future hopes.

Young people everywhere should be more optimistic about their situation and feel happier than the elderly just because of their age.

This is clearly visible in the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, while the happiness index of young people in the United States and Western Europe has even declined in recent years, although it has risen in our region.

With our youth in the lead, Serbia took third place, Romania and the Czech Republic are also in the top ten – even four post-communist countries.

Israel is a country with a completely different historical destiny, it seems that there is no sense of security there, but Jewish youth are second only to Lithuanians in terms of their sense of happiness, although the local seniors did not make it into the top ten either.

Perhaps it is not expected that in this index, the youth of the United States is at a record low – only 62nd, and the older generation – tenth. The pessimism of the youth even pushed this rich country out of the overall lucky twenty. The same thing happened to Germany.

The decline in the well-being of young people in the West can be explained by the pandemic (the study assessed the period of 2021-2023), the subsequent rampant inflation, the worsening of economic conditions, and in the United States also unprecedented scale of public opposition – young people are always at the peak of internal struggles, and when receiving pensions that meet their needs, older people less sensitive.

A different sense of youth is possible in post-communist countries, especially in Lithuania. After all, young people know, at least from stories, how poorly the older generation had to live, and they realize that their life is incomparably better.

In addition, for 20 years, people’s incomes have grown significantly in Lithuania, while this progress is less rapid in the West, where young people have long been accustomed to high standards of well-being.

On the other hand, young people in our country are much more in demand in the labor market, are more self-confident, make higher demands on employers and enjoy all the freedoms.

This generation is also less afraid of the future, despite the hovering geopolitical threats, while older people, weighed down by historical tragedies, are especially worried about the threat of war.

Undoubtedly, the well-being of the elderly is significantly worsened by the relatively small pensions in Lithuania and, unlike the youth, they cannot expect that their income will increase in the future. Social care is also lagging behind.

It is also necessary to take into account the low social activity of the elders, the feeling that they do not care about the government, which does not inspire confidence, or young people.

Hence, despite the happiest youth in the world, the pessimism of the elders, which dropped Lithuania to the 19th place in the overall happiness index, is natural.

Our country jumped so high this year only because of young people – according to last year’s survey, we were only in 34th place.

By the way, according to the happiness index, Lithuanian seniors are ranked between the 43rd ranked Filipinos and the 45th ranked Argentines, although the GDP per capita in our country is much higher.

This shows that the well-being of older people could be improved even without waiting for further economic growth, simply by involving them more in public life, strengthening social care, and improving health services.

2024-04-29 03:42:54

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