Mexico Named One of the Happiest Countries in the World

I will never forget the lesson I learned from the Mexican people after the Colima earthquake in 1995. I had been living in Lake Chapala, Mexico, for years when the earthquake hit the coastal state of Colima. I could feel the slight aftershocks all the way here in the Ajijic.

While watching the news, I was struck most by the attitudes of the people who lost their businesses and homes. They were covered in dust and sitting on sidewalks, huddled together making fires to heat their tortillas, sharing blankets and showing concern for one another. They were obviously taking the loss of all their worldly goods in stride so a reporter asked a man who had just lost his small hotel (where he also lived), "How do you feel about the loss of all your worldly goods?"

The man smiled and looked pensively at the ground and then with a level gaze he said, "Those were just things. Those things were material. Bricks and sticks. I still have my wife, my children and my own life. None of us were harmed and for that I am most grateful. We have each other. All my neighbors lost everything they had too. Why should I feel more important than they are? I have what matters, and we'll all help each other start again."

This man didn't have a fat insurance policy (or any insurance at all!) or a government relief check coming his way to help alleviate his problems. Neither did his neighbors.

The overwhelming sentiment as the reporter asked these people how they felt after watching their homes and businesses reduced to a pile of rubble was that they were thankful that they hadn't lost any of their loved ones and they would just start over.

While cultural differences can't be summed up this tidily, I couldn't help but contrast this with the oil crash while I was living in Texas in the 1980s. I watched the news as more and more suicides were reported as wealthy oil-men lost their fortunes overnight. They interviewed people sobbing with grief over their financial losses. I don't mean to belittle anyone's grief at all. This was a devastating time and it affected my family adversely as well.

However, I marveled at the differences in the ways Mexico and people 'north of the border' handle crisis and financial loss.

Mexicans seem more philosophical about what they have and what they don't. According to the University of Michigan's World Values Surveys (WVS) of 2007, the second happiest people in the world are Mexicans. This might seem surprising given Mexico's widespread poverty, but the survey appears to confirm the old adage that money cannot buy happiness.

The United States ranked 23rd among the 82 societies in the study, which was based on interviews with a sampling of 120,000 people representing 85 percent of the global population. That put the United States ahead of Britain, Germany and France, Japan, China and Russia, but behind the smaller or less affluent countries of Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, Ireland, the Netherlands and Canada.

The subjective well-being rankings are one part of the largest social-science study ever. The World Values Survey, an ongoing investigation by a global network of social scientists, measures social, cultural and political change on all six populated continents.

How could the United States and Canada come in behind Mexico? Consumerism north of the border is on the rise, as is the use of anti-depressants and suicide (especially among young people). While the search for 'something meaningful in life' is increasing, it is shopping that Americans most commonly turn to when a pick-me-up is needed. In fact, it appears that consumerism falls within the guidelines of an addiction.

Mexico's people generally place little value on financial or personal success and high value on time spent with family and enjoyment of life. I think this is one of the reasons the people in Mexico are happier; they typically do not measure success by how much money they make or what they own. Their success is measured by their family ties---not just their immediate family---but their whole family network of uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and cousins and friends.

Most of the countries that scored highest are Spanish-speaking countries such as Puerto Rico and Venezuela. University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart, chairman of the survey, calls this 'the Latino bonus.'

"They're not the richest people in the world," he said. "You seem to get a plus for being Latino."

Factors that make people happy may vary from one country to the next with personal success and self-expression seen as the most important in the US. The researchers for World Values Survey described the desire for material goods as "a happiness suppressant."

Richard Eckersley, an Australian public health researcher featured in a 2003 radio documentary, Consumerism, Money, and Happiness, says, "Addiction is really a hallmark of our era, and I think it reflects that we don't have culturally promoted kinds of other, deeper forms of meaning and purpose in our lives. So we make up for it by consuming more. But the evidence is overwhelming that people who are characterized by materialistic attitudes and values actually experience lower well-being, lower happiness, more depression and anxiety and anger than people who aren't materialistic."

After discussing road rage in the U.S., Luz Elena, a Mexican friend of mine, turned to me and asked, "Why are Americans so angry? They have so much!"

That may be precisely the problem.

Kristina Morgan lives in Mexico and works with Focus on Mexico, giving informational tours to people considering retiring or moving to Mexico. www.FocusonMexico.com