The Good news is that those extremely brainy people at NEF (the New economics Foundation) have conclusively shown that... stop press... there is no link between human happiness and more stuff. Their Happy planet Index works out how well each country is using their environmental resources to deliver happiness and well-being to their people. Top of the class is... Costa Rica. And, interestingly, nine of =he top 10 nations are in Latin America. Big cheer. Saudi Arabia is 13th, China is 20th, India 35th. Not a single European country made it into the top 50, for shame... Germany is highest at 51, Sweden =3, Italy 69. Blair must be relieved that the UK (74) just managed to =eat that well-resourced and happy country known as Iraq (79). Australia =102) beat New Zealand (103) and the USA (114) is no doubt breaking out =he champagne for managing to triumph over Nigeria (115) by one whole =lace. Not surprisingly, Zimbabwe is languishing at the bottom =143).

http://www.happyplanetindex.org/

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