Finland has been consistently ranked #1 country when it comes to happiness. You know why? Because they are content. Why are they content? Not because they have crazy money. But, because they have certainty. - Certainty of taxes. And, unemployment benefits. - Certainty of education (which is high quality & free). - Certainty of healthcare (which is high quality & free). Now let's change the example: you know why Indian corporates employees are one of the unhappiest in the world? Because they are not content. Why are they not content. Because they have no certainty on anything. - No certainty of jobs or their working hours. - No certainty of taxes (taxes change every year almost). - No unemployment benefits. You lose your job, you are on your own. It is basically corporate hunger games. There is no such thing as happiness. There is contentment. When a person can be at peace. He/she can be content. And, that paves the path for happiness.
Akshat Shrivastava Thanks for sharing! No one can deny this truth! Even the people who may make negetive comments here, cannot deny the truth you have said!
It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and glorify one country while painting another in constant negativity — especially when you’ve never lived in the place you’re comparing. Yes, Finland ranks high on happiness — but let’s not romanticize it. It’s a small, homogenous country with a population smaller than many Indian cities. Its model works for them, but it’s not without problems: high taxes, long winters, and growing mental health issues. India, on the other hand, is an entirely different scale and story. A nation of 1.4 billion, unmatched diversity, and explosive growth. Comparing Finland to India is like comparing a bicycle to a rocket — both have wheels, but they’re built for very different missions. Finland’s “certainty” comes from stability in a small system. India’s “contentment” comes from resilience, ambition, and the drive to build something bigger every single day. Critique is fine. But constant negativity without context isn’t insight, it’s ignorance.
Ah yes, Finland - where people pay 50% taxes willingly and still smile, because at least they know where it’s going. Meanwhile in India, you pay taxes, fuel prices go up, onions get costlier, and your boss still asks, ‘Can we get on a quick call at 10 PM?’ We don’t need happiness indexes here - we’ve got deadlines, deliverables, and dopamine hits from weekend Netflix binges. Finland has contentment. We have... ‘content calendar approval pending.’ 😌
First step to improvement is ‘acceptance’, we as a nation aren’t ready to ‘accept’ that we need a change and learn from others. We justify all the issues somehow.
Honestly, another reason Indian corporate employees feel unhappy might just be LinkedIn itself. Every other post is about someone who cleared an exam at 21, built a startup at 25, or cracked an investment strategy that apparently beats inflation and gravity together. It’s not always the uncertainty at work that wears people down — it’s the daily reminder that everyone else seems to be compounding faster, both in wealth and success stories.
This comparison is unfair and looks a bit like gaslighting. Finland is a tiny country with 5M population, with disproportionately abundant resources which works really well for them. We can't apply the same lens with India. You know that very well too. That's like comparing a local sweet shop which runs a profitable business with a multi billion conglomerate on same parameters of happiness.
How do you manage to link everything with taxes & policy? Linking happiness with Policy certainty is a long shot. There are several other reasons why Nordic countries like Finland are above Asian countries like India in Happiness Index such as social, cultural, psychological, geographical, environmental, physiological. Policy is not the reason for happiness or lack of it.
Happiness isn’t about luxury, it’s about security. Certainty gives peace, and peace creates contentment. Something we rarely talk about in the constant chase for “more.”
Contentment is the quiet form of happiness. It’s not built on abundance but on assurance. And that’s what most systems miss while chasing growth without security.
This is a media hype only. They are not so happy. As a visitor to Scandinavinan countries and having interacted with them, I posed some questions to them on this. In fact they compained about the very high cost of living. Moreover there is an absolute lack of supportive family ecosystem when it comes to old age as they stay single and do not have kids. Suicides are one of the highest among them. Taxes are 45 to 60%. So media gives stories that are far from truth. However there is no corruption and there is cleanliness. But these alone cannot make the country the happiest place.