Higest number of Serial Killers from US - Page 6

Originally posted by: BirdieNumNum

thats the problem with quackery. It comes couched in terminology and methodology that would make a head spin, but doesn't serve much use. Economists are masters at it. They are never wrong even if they are never right. Neuroscientists too for all their brilliance are out of their depths when it comes to explaining how things like consciousness work. They'll be able to tell you which part of the brain has an orgasm when it sees a hot chick. But nothing more...

Gallup in particular was way off compared to others on recent presidential polls. They used all kinds of psephologists, statisticians etc and that didnt help them do any better... The guys who sold CDO-squared also had models, great models. But they almost brought down the world's financial system.

you brought up Black Scholes, which is like fin 00001 for some people. You know what, if it started to perform dismally in explaining real world option prices, we'd chuck them out and look for other things. As it is, the volatilities that drive those models are just a convenient shorthand for exchanging information about option prices. No option trader worth anything will consider them infallible... And no, i dont trade just options or coorelations. Those would be too poor.😆

you also mentioned India being at #115. Again, that's according to your report. The report from IPSOS which imo has more expertise in dealing with social issues has India at #4, with US behind. And it makes sense.Even things like life expectancy do not equate to happiness. Zindagi achi honi chahiye, sirf lambi nahi.😆.In fact you should yourself question anyone being able to quantify and come up with a happiness index as if happiness could be quantified. Talking of which, the west excels in putting out statistics for all kinds of things. They have more numbers for baseball or football or anything than the underlying. It's like mutual funds and hedge funds- there are more of them than even the underlying securities...

basically you seem to have blind faith in models. I do not. And that's coming from someone who might have seen a model or two 😊 Anyway, you can have it if you want... you win by dint of stamina.😆

Originally posted by: K.Universe.

Report is published by United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Survey is conducted by Gallup.

Questionnaire is set by leading economists, neuroscientists and statisticians.



Factors considered are GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perception of corruption, everything else.

Point is, we should let the real experts analyze how social support and mental health correlate to the neuroscience of happiness and only post meaningful data for comparative analysis, discussion and debate. There is no point in debating vague, empty statements about "families, culture, society, individualism" etc.

Originally posted by: K.Universe.

Originally posted by: QuietlyLoud

IMO that happiness index is baseless.Happiness is subjective.What makes one group of people happy,need not necessarily apply to another lot.

Some people find happiness in materialistic comforts-having a huge house,a car of your choice and all luxuries by your side.Some won't agree to that.They would say if your happiness depends on things,it won't last long.

Personally, I think Americans are more materialistic and self centered than Europeans.They have a desire to outdo each other in money matters and set a huge store by wealth.May be not all of them,but a good number.A consumerist culture is more evident.Europeans don't seem much inclined to accumulate money.Enjoying it matters more to them-more leisure time and vacations.

May be the Americans' love for money has something to do with their not so loved healthcare system?🤔I bet the US can find a better place in that happiness index if it were to adopt a free healthcare policy.I mean,you can't really expect a middle class person to be happy if he were to spent the rest of his life in his car after spending some weeks at the hospital.

As for India,generalising seems impossible.States differ vastly in terms of culture and lifestyle.But in general, media coverage is vast in India compared to other developing countries .Even in the poorest slums,most people would have access to some sort of media and nothing serves better to expand one's horizons and to know how the rest of the world lives.If a middle class Indian is to get a glimpse of the seemingly prosperous Scandinavian lifestyle,it is sensible to think that there could be a room for comparisions and hence the discontent.Less media coverage and no exposure to foreign lifestyles might explain why some countries less prosperous than India fared better in the happiness scale.

If some nomadic African tribes living completely cut off from the modern world were interviewed,I think they would come out as a happier lot on par with people from developed countries.If that lifestyle and culture you are a part of is the only one you are familiar with,you could be happy and content with what you have because there isn't a scale to compare with.

Originally posted by: K.Universe.

Birdie, you are abusing the word quackery. If anything, the report published the opposite of quackery

You are fixated on the money factor used by the survey and ignoring 5 other variables that it used. I can't help you if you willfully ignore 5 of the elements contributing to the overall "well-being".

I am not interested in comparing US and India. India has 116 countries ranked higher that it can compare itself to, while US has 14.

I said millions are lining up to come to US. That's from all over the world. Talk about twisting words.

I said economists, statisticians and neuroscientists are involved in formulating questions. You choose to focus solely on economists. Wat are you, myopic?

If you have any fine-tuning suggestions, maybe you should talk to the Gallup guys. I am sure these models have room for improvement.

Originally posted by: QuietlyLoud