Life Satisfaction in Denmark - Cycling Connection?
02-25-07, 01:45 PM
#1
tired
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Life Satisfaction in Denmark - Cycling Connection?
I'm not sure how I missed this in the NYT, but it gave a link to the journal article, as well. They do mention cycling as a possible factor for their life satisfaction, but I don't think the importance is as obvious to them as may be to some of us. My overall mood has undergone such a positive change since I began riding my bike nearly every day, I personally find it hard to believe cycling isn't a major factor in this study's findings.
Sweden has more blond beauties per capita, Italy and France have far better cuisine, and most of the free world can boast of better weather. But over the past 30 years, the citizens of Denmark have scored higher than any other Western country on measures of life satisfaction, and scientists think they know why.
In a paper appearing in the Dec. 23 issue of the medical journal BMJ, researchers review six likely and unlikely explanations, and conclude that the country’s secret is a culture of low expectations. “It’s a David and Goliath thing,” said the lead author, Kaare Christensen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. “If you’re a big guy, you expect to be on the top all the time and you’re disappointed when things don’t go well. But when you’re down at the bottom like us, you hang on, you don’t expect much, and once in a while you win, and it’s that much better.”
The researchers arrived at their findings by a process of elimination and humor. Blonds may have more fun, they argue, but Sweden has a higher prevalence of them. As for climate, Danes “bask in a somewhat colder and cloudier version of the balmy English weather.” They also eat fatty foods and drink a lot, and genetically they are not significantly different from their gloomier Scandinavian neighbors. And in 1992 the Danes won the European Championship in soccer, creating “such a state of euphoria that the country has not been the same since.”
But on surveys, Danes continually report lower expectations for the year to come, compared with most other nations. And “year after year, they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark,” the paper concludes.
In a paper appearing in the Dec. 23 issue of the medical journal BMJ, researchers review six likely and unlikely explanations, and conclude that the country’s secret is a culture of low expectations. “It’s a David and Goliath thing,” said the lead author, Kaare Christensen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. “If you’re a big guy, you expect to be on the top all the time and you’re disappointed when things don’t go well. But when you’re down at the bottom like us, you hang on, you don’t expect much, and once in a while you win, and it’s that much better.”
The researchers arrived at their findings by a process of elimination and humor. Blonds may have more fun, they argue, but Sweden has a higher prevalence of them. As for climate, Danes “bask in a somewhat colder and cloudier version of the balmy English weather.” They also eat fatty foods and drink a lot, and genetically they are not significantly different from their gloomier Scandinavian neighbors. And in 1992 the Danes won the European Championship in soccer, creating “such a state of euphoria that the country has not been the same since.”
But on surveys, Danes continually report lower expectations for the year to come, compared with most other nations. And “year after year, they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark,” the paper concludes.
02-25-07, 06:00 PM
#2
Lanky Lass
All I know is that I would be smacking people upside the head almost daily if I didn't get to ride my bikes.
I have lowered my expectations that people will leave me alone, even for the thirty minutes granted to me for 'lunch'. I try to hide, but they still find me
.
At least my bikes are quiet (well, except for the squealing brakes on some of them), well-behaved, and don't keep forgetting that "Mail for Sitka goes to Sitka, it doesn't go to Juneau or Ketchikan because Sitka has a direct flight
..."
East Hill
I have lowered my expectations that people will leave me alone, even for the thirty minutes granted to me for 'lunch'. I try to hide, but they still find me
.At least my bikes are quiet (well, except for the squealing brakes on some of them), well-behaved, and don't keep forgetting that "Mail for Sitka goes to Sitka, it doesn't go to Juneau or Ketchikan because Sitka has a direct flight
..."East Hill
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TRY EMPATHY & HAVE LOVE IN YOUR HEART, PERHAPS I'LL SEE YOU ON THE ROAD...
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TRY EMPATHY & HAVE LOVE IN YOUR HEART, PERHAPS I'LL SEE YOU ON THE ROAD...
02-26-07, 01:58 PM
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I think it has something to do with it, but they also get 5 weeks vacation and work a 37 hour work week (they are legally entitled to getting 3 weeks in a row off in the summer).
Oh yeah, and they pay some of the highest income taxes in the western world.
Oh yeah, and they pay some of the highest income taxes in the western world.
02-26-07, 02:40 PM
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I was in Copenhagen a couple of years ago, and I have never seen so many bicycles in one place! They have bike parking, and they are 20-30 deep. What I wanted to know is how do you get your bike out if it's buried in there? Also, I don't think I saw an out of shape person there.
02-26-07, 03:13 PM
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I think I read that in some Danish cities up to 20% of the population use bikes for transport. I believe that in Germany the same applies.
02-27-07, 02:11 AM
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Originally Posted by rbrsddn
I was in Copenhagen a couple of years ago, and I have never seen so many bicycles in one place! They have bike parking, and they are 20-30 deep. What I wanted to know is how do you get your bike out if it's buried in there? Also, I don't think I saw an out of shape person there.
https://www.mip.sdu.dk/~glewin/cyklin...s/Page459.html
There's a comic on the wall in the coffee room here that shows two signs: One says "Sunny beaches and scantiliy clad women, THIS WAY", the other "Rain, wind and pork products, THIS WAY."
Sven says "Hey Ole, I smell bacon!"
I dunno', they seem to take it all in stride and not take themselves too seriously. My take is they just have a very good idea about what's important (family time, free time, etc.) vs. work, work, work. The taxes _are_ a little ridiculous. I pay about 33% of my salary in income taxes (and I get a discount as a foreigner), PLUS 25% sales tax on everything. Heck, if you so much as _own_ a TV, you have to pay 170 kroner / month (about $30) just for a TV license. Imagine if contributing to PBS was not only mandatory, but required every month!
But then my health care is greatly subsidized (not totally 'free'). There are lots of social services (not just 'welfare', but free/highly subsidized day-care, good roads and bike facilities, college students usually get a stipend, adults can go to 'højskole', etc.). We get a check for $1000 every three months just because we have two children (even though we're foreigners). And the drunks have their own little beer garden so they don't bother the rest of us.
I'm not sure it's how I'd want to run a country, but as a guest, I try not to get too indignant -- except for the TV thing -- that's absurd. But the economy is booming here, with ~4% unemployment, so things are going OK for now. Whether or not the taxes will catch up with them in the long run, we'll see. (They do have trouble retaining engineers and scientists, which is why they have the tax break for foreigners).
And now the sun is back even...
02-27-07, 07:50 AM
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To me the high tax rate isn't bad, if you know you are actually getting something for your money. It sounds like the $$ the government is taking is going toward tangible things that directly benefit the citizens.
Ride on, Danes!
Ride on, Danes!
02-27-07, 09:33 AM
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I been in DK lots of times (married to a Dane) and I can say they do enjoy life. But its life in the detail not in the abundance. Xmas in DK is wonderful, I always compare it to stepping out of : Its a Wonderful Life. They are hardy drinkers, hardy bikers, hardy Joke tellers (and beautiful babes everywhere!!!) in an enviroment that for a foreigner might be an oximoron between very acceptable (liberal) and extremely cnservative values. I wish I had the guts to finally relinquish the need for sun and warmth and move to DK for its the best country I ever visited.
