Why people in Sweden are happier than we are.

hello since 2012 every year the un publishes its world happiness report think of it as a rating of countries that are doing well it's serious research powered by data from the gallup world poll they calculate gdp level of corruption life expectancy freedom of speech and much much more this is the 2020 report if we take out the obvious participant switzerland we're left with pretty much all scandinavian countries leading the poll and this order basically never changes i'm sure a lot of you are thinking that's because these countries are super rich and therefore they're obviously doing well well yes and no if you look at the gdp of kuwait the uae and even singapore it's a lot higher than what these guys have but still people seem to be happier in finland or norway i guess there's some secret component to it all and i've decided to find it find it in sweden [Music] yeah it's not the happiest country on the list but it has a serious advantage it's the only country in the eu that didn't have a lockdown which means their way of life didn't change in 2020. sweden serves as a good reflection of all the scandinavian countries put together my plan is to collect some prospective data in sweden then extrapolate it to all the other neighboring countries and finally figure out why it is these guys who are the happiest bunch in the world don't worry i won't bore you with a flood of applied sociology instead as this customary youtube tradition let me give you a rundown of what to expect in this episode you will see stockholm and malmo we'll check out interesting buildings discover the local architecture and design oh and we'll hack one of these buildings too we'll check out lots of retro cars investigate why swedes buy garbage from norway of course we'll also tour the country a bit talk to some great people and all of this should hopefully explain why the scandinavians are so happy with their lives [Music] we begin in stockholm the city of cyclists a peculiar underground that is often called the biggest art gallery and of course the nobel prize presented in this building i don't want to dive into stockholm just yet but just let me give you a quick taste this is my second time here and luckily it's summer because last time it was winter and very very different scandinavian winters can be magical which is what the north was like but as for cities well they aren't great in the winter weather is critical to how you perceive a city making it very different in rain or sunshine so best to come here in summer trust me i think the advantages of stockholm in the summer are obvious and surprisingly it's the harsh weather cities where people are the happiest the general public on the other hand typically think it's places that look like this that are ideal for life well according to the statistics they look like this second widely held myth is this why are there so many suicides if these are the happiest countries in the world this guy's is also not true and the un report serves as a good proof of it in short there is some truth to it but only in the 60s and 70s due to a lack of sunlight in the scandinavian countries people here often suffer from an illness called seasonal affective disorder which leads to depression however once the benefits of vitamin d were discovered and doctors started to prescribe antidepressants the negative statistics started to change nowadays the number of suicides in scandinavian countries is equal to the average european figures if we look at the worldwide list of countries finland is 32nd and sweden is 51st with norway and denmark even farther down the list now that we've dispelled the myths let's see what the smiley faces of one of the happiest countries in the world looks like [Music] my first impression these guys don't look that happy it's definitely not the typical dolce vita in italy or spain where people start their mornings with a glass of wine i guess this serves as a key to understanding the local satisfaction with life and in order to really understand the swedes and learn their lifestyle i need to introduce you to a local term it's called lagom which stands for moderate adequate and just right this is the quintessential swedish behavior the philosophy of life and it means that everything in life must be moderate there are even a bunch of books on this that describe all aspects of life from health and emotions to your social behavior put another way the word is defined as a sort of balance and equilibrium diving deeper still it's about saying no to things you don't need and not showing off it's the search for the perfect balance swedes seek out balance in everything the work life balance savings their attitude to fashion the home and much more so let's figure out how it correlates with happiness and how we can deploy this in our everyday lives we begin with society at large these countries are known by their middle class relatively equal income but most importantly the attitude people have towards each other upon in other words modesty means happiness showing off and wearing things like extravagant diamond watches is all very foreign to the swedes you just don't show your supremacy since it might cause discomfort to other people equality serves as one of the main pillars of swedish society and they absolutely hate it when you demonstrate financial superiority greater knowledge or simply dress better suites are super trendy but very casual at the same time so you won't see anything flashy here a good example of lagom is the swedish clothing brand h m it's stylish and inexpensive and it makes you look good without standing out exceptions to the rule do exist of course but they seem to kind of prove the sweet's point [Music] the same goes for vehicles as throughout my trip i only saw a few number of fancy cars although i feel that those were probably the foreigners in general people here tend to choose more standard cars while some prefer bikes instead here's another example of this humble style of life for you meet the swedish princess madeline with her husband at a formal reception and picking up her dog's poop in stockholm the thing is jealousy kind of disappears when there is no superiority and in the end there is no one to be jealous of and this attitude is exercised right from childhood the kids at school start getting grades in year six again to make everyone feel equal all in all i'd say the qualities that the swedish society has really taken to are equality and modesty now let's talk about work all jobs in sweden come with additional benefits and as it turns out it is quite difficult to get fired here foreign if you my friend stay at the same company for a long time you practically become invincible sweden is extremely people-oriented here you get free education healthcare isn't completely free but it's inexpensive you might be wondering there's gotta be some catch to this too good to be true scenario and it's the taxes taxes here are some of the highest in the world some folks income taxes are as high as 56 percent in the end these immense taxes may appear to be a downside but they seem to be at least one reason the swedes are so happy with their lives allow me to explain it's all about the progressive tax rate which we'll now learn more of thanks to stas and marina who live in malmo [Music] foreign foreign one thing that these progressive rates do is discourage you from working overtime as every additional hour results in more taxes both for you and your employer meaning that it's not more profitable to work a lot this kind of levels the rat race where you work non-stop in order to earn more completely changing your perception of money and just as the american money-making model can be parodied by the phrase get rich or die trying scandinavians are all about lagom why spend your life chasing millions that you won't even be able to spend when you can earn a sufficient amount and enjoy some free time this is where the idea of balance swiftly comes into play a work-life balance that serves as one of the pillars to local happiness they do follow a work schedule but never stay overtime this is foreign and this work-life balance couldn't be more different than japan where working overtime has become a social norm people there sleep during their commute to work and hundreds die on a yearly basis due to work fatigue which has even become a separate word karoshi swedes on the other hand are far from that nokiroshi here today is friday 4 30 on the nose and while everyone is still hard at work in other countries the swedes just look at it as if it's a saturday evening and everybody else is still packed in their offices [Music] it's because of this attitude to work locals have enough free time for family sports and leisure and this of course affects your satisfaction with life in other words it's the perfect balance of it all interestingly this idea does not only resonate with society but also swedish companies and concepts that the swedes gave to the world let me show you i just couldn't help but present the next subject in a creative way because it's one of my favorites it's swedish design and architecture [Music] scandinavian architectural design is one of the most popular in the world right now and sweden plays an important part in it because their architecture is like a reflection of their attitude to life minimalistic building design nothing over the top no decor and it still manages to look stunning and the stockholm underground follows the same principles the locally known tunnel bana was built inside granite rocks and instead of decorating it the swedes painted the walls in bright colors and now have one of the most unusual and memorable underground metros in the world functionality meets simplicity sweden's largest furniture manufacturer also follows these same principles and yes i am referring to ikea there are more ikea catalogs printed every year than bibles they come in 29 languages and when it comes to the ikea decor it's once again all about lagom as the streamlined and low-key design aims for functionality simplicity and durability it's hard not to mention inglar comprod when talking about ikea because not only is he the founder but it's also who the company is named after ikea is an acronym which stands for the founder's first name last name and his place of birth inkvar once saw that one of his employees was detaching the legs from a table to fit into a customer's car and that's when it hit him from that point forward all the company's products would be sold disassembled which drastically decreased the logistical expenses comprod was a billionaire one of the richest people of his time but was also known for thrift as if he was from the year 2050 he always flew economy made his employees use both sides of the paper and drove around in a 15 year old volvo this exact one apparently there was even an incident when ingvar wasn't allowed access to a gala to receive his businessman of the year award because he took the bus and security didn't recognize him perhaps it's quite a peculiar behavior for someone worth 50 billion dollars but then again it's all about the swedish modesty isn't it oh and let me show you a couple buildings that caught my eye let's start with victoria tower a 117 meter high-rise built in the stockholm silicon valley thanks to its scale-like surface it naturally blends into the landscape if you look at it from just the right angle it almost becomes invisible eriksen globe is another unusual design and the biggest spherical building in the world this 85 meter tall golf ball serves as a concert hall and there's even a gondola that can take you up to the top of it next is the euphoria mall in malmo which features a very futuristic looking facade covered in golden glass finally the most recognizable skyscraper in sweden the turning torso a 190 meter building that for a long time has been considered the tallest building of its kind in the world today it's still the tallest building in scandinavia in a postcard site of malmo as for my two favorites allow me to enlighten you a bit with the stockholm public library it's nearly 100 years old but thanks to its design it looks like it belongs amongst the modern architecture and although i can't say that i've seen a ton of libraries around the world this one here definitely earns the top spot on my list [Music] what's amazing is that anyone can go in you don't need a library card or anything just go in and start getting blown away make sure you visit it next time you're in stockholm and don't forget to read too guys finally i was excited to show you one more interesting structure but for that the knight had to come first watch that tower guys we wait for nightfall open our special app and select the tower floors then the fun begins this app lets you control the color of the tower and by combining red green and blue in different proportions we can achieve any color in the entire spectrum and here's what my amateur skills got me here's more and more [Music] i think i could spend my whole life just playing with these colors and thankfully the app developers limit each session to 10 minutes what's crazy though is that it was launched in 2006 so it's now been 14 years that this tower has brought joy to the locals i got quite lucky with stockholm this time the weather was great i explored the city and loved it back in winter time i didn't want to risk jumping on a river ferry but this time here i am and check out the process for flagging down a ferry you put the sign down and it's how the captain knows that you want it and seeing stockholm from the river ferry is something you guys should definitely try here's something that happened afterwards i was minding my own business on sergel's torque square and then this happened [Music] [Music] honestly i was surprised it was like a vintage rally in sweden guys a place where people don't show off and drive boring cars it feels like i'm in las vegas in the 70s and where on earth did these cars come from turns out sweden is where one of the largest american classic car festivals takes place and apparently it even attracts the americans themselves who are eager to check out these beauties all due to the fact that there are more of them here than in the us so these motorheads gather up on late fridays and go for a stroll and this is when it hit me i decided to get a car too so i rented one i know i know running americ in sweden is pretty dumb but i couldn't find a volvo because they're all taken yep we'll have to roman america unfortunately although volvo is always with us thanks to their invention that we all wear these days seatbelts and they registered it as an open patent so that all other car manufacturers could make full use of it too for free of course the swedes gotta love them we're now in a very interesting place and it's where i'd like to talk about something that the swedes really excel at even more than the rest of the world it's recycling try to wrap your mind around this sweden recycles 99 of the trash it produces and only that last one percent ends up in the landfill moreover the recycling program provides stockholm with 40 percent of its electrical demands an impressive achievement of infrastructure given that sweden has no oil and gas and it's where alternative energy becomes the solution to energy-induced problems in order to achieve such results the government began to educate its society in the late 80s these days even kindergartners have lessons on recycling a key aspect of this education is the correct assortment of trash which is supported by the so-called fti stations where glass is separated by color and aluminum paper and plastic have individual bins as far as plastic goes it's a different story of its own and this is how the government encourages people to dispose of it properly [Music] we go into a grocery store and pick up the most basic water bottle the water itself costs 10 krona but the receipt says 11 krona this is not some organized financial crime arranged by the grocery store but a way to make you recycle this bottle and that's how you get your one chrono back plastic bottles can be recycled on the spot you put your empty bottle in and get a barcode that you can redeem in the store to get your money back this is future yep these machines are everywhere utilized to their utmost potential by the entrepreneurs around us plastic bags are more expensive than their paper alternatives also suites love their secondhand shops where apart from clothing you can also find dishes books vinyls and lots of other useful things too [Music] these shops are popular in sweden for a couple reasons first it's where you can find quality cheap stuff and secondly the use of things is once again part of the lagom concept so everyone does it and most importantly it doesn't make you look like a cheapskate without the second hand also you can recycle clothes too and then there's a thing called plogging which is a combination of jogging and picking up litter it's not surprising then that it's sweden that brought up the famous greta thunberg the author of how dare you how dare you let me show you what domestic litter assortment looks like every building has its own sorting room and while food waste goes into dedicated paper bags here's the best part i completely forgot to mention that buses here run on biogas and biodiesel which in turn looks roughly like this yep it's just your average compost and this is why people don't just throw their trash away because they have a clear understanding as to why it is sorted and what that process achieves as for large waste there are specialized centers for that [Music] remember how the australians leave their old furniture on the street hoping someone might take it so they don't have to pay to throw it away well sweden is the opposite you throw your stuff away for free you just bring it to a specialized location because of this the locals rent vans to dispose of large items and check out how packed this place is this large trash is then compacted in containers that process construction waste wood books tires lamps batteries and even household appliances that i bet would have been taken off the curb in no time if this were australia here though it's recycled i felt as though there was more i could investigate on the subject so i took off for a town called link sherping home to recycling company technica verken honestly if you take off the pipes it starts to look like a pretty good looking business center alright think about this sweden actually imports garbage the country doesn't have enough trash to keep its recycling factories running so they buy it from other countries including norway and the uk it's thanks to this recycled energy that over 1 million homes get heating and roughly 700 000 additional households get electricity this swedish model of recycling is called trash to treasure and it's probably why these factories look so space-age i mean i'd even live in one i think this is what the future needs to look like with recycling centers that look better than the homes we live in and garbage that has turned into energy wonderful [Music] just when i started to think our investigation of sweden was complete i realized that there was one more thing to highlight regarding the happiness of the swedish people [Music] in at least one point of this episode you heard me say that the weather wasn't great here but when the sun comes out which doesn't last long or happen often the swedes take to the forests have a picnic and even swim in the freezing sea you have to have those bad weather to be happy in the good weather [Music] this is the south of sweden where many have their summer houses and it's where people go to chill and be closer to nature those who don't have summer houses become resourceful and pitch a tent and according to the swedish laws you can camp wherever you want including the national parks and although you may not associate sweden with amazing landscapes it actually does have some great spots i guess then the final piece that helps generate the swede's happiness is becoming one with nature and finally the puzzle is complete to summarize i believe that there are a number of reasons behind the sweet's happiness one reason is the equality the difference between rich and poor isn't substantial and even if it exists no one really flocks it so everyone feels equal everyone is socially secure no one here cares about the rat race and getting fired and they spend their free time with family nature friends whatever i have another theory too though and it dawned on me after visiting countries that border the equator perhaps the reason why life is great in these nordic countries is actually the climate i know the sun is blazing in full swing and the weather is gorgeous right now but in reality the local climate is really harsh which i think very much challenged the earliest people from these countries to work as hard as they possibly could throughout the summer so that they didn't die of hunger or freezing temperatures in the winter this in my opinion is why countries surrounding the equator are usually the most economically challenged because they don't have as much interest in tirelessly working themselves 24 7 and they don't live in fear of dying from the cold or going hungry from freezing conditions and if we extrapolate that to some people's lives in general you can make the case that someone who is raised with a silver spoon in their mouth usually struggles more in life compared to people who live in stressful conditions and have no option but to work trying to achieve something in life it's the latter bunch that succeed in life it's a simple philosophy but i think it works even if you apply it to something like a whole country that's all for me this time you know what to do see ya [Music] you

Channel: Anton somewhere

Views: 886,291

Keywords: anton, ptushkin, weden, Stockholm, Malmo, Quarantine in Sweden, lagom, Scandinavian countries, IKEA, Swedish economy, waste sorting in Sweden, waste recycling, happiness index, happiest countries, suicides in Sweden.

Id: e6oAQlTd67k

Length: 27min 28sec (1648 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021