It’s Austria, just to save you a click.
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We are? The world is really going downhill isn’t it?
Maybe you’re fairly content with life, as was the case with us in Finland being the “happiest country on earth”.
But you don’t worry about your glaciers melting. Or your corrupt government. You keep buying cheap Russian gas and being happy. Happiness is like ignorance, it’s a bliss. So, don’t worry, be happy.
how bad is it there? I’d imagine lots of European countries are doing worse
It’s actually quite okay. Inflation is just high (above average), the prices of everyday life have been skyrocketing for months. Buying real estate has become impossible for most people. Our far-right party has been at the top of the polls for almost exactly a year. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the common Austrian is doing quite well. Public transport is relatively good (at least in the cities) an annual ticket for the whole of Austria costs only €1095 (price for a single state starts at €365). Nature is beautiful, food is good, education is free, social system works. So, could be worse.
How much for rent a simple apartment?
Depends on the size and your patience. A single room apartment can be had for <€400 if you get lucky.
And if you have enough patience to get into the government housing program, you pay next to nothing. Buildings older than 1955 are also regulated and quite cheap.
You can also get cooperative housing flats (and even houses) with quite a low rent. We pay <€800 for about 80m².
But we did have some 10% increase over the last year.
And for all of these cheap options you need a lot of patience (between half a year and 5 years). If you need a flat right now, you can easily pay double of that on the free market.
(All these numbers are for the capital city Vienna. Prices in other places can be much lower. There are dieing villages in many rural areas, where houses are pretty affordable, because nobody wants them.)
And the income for one? I’d imagine the taxes would tend to flat out a lot of differences, but I know it’s gonna depend on so many things that’s it’s best to omit it.
The median income before tax is €55 731 per year and after tax and mandatory health insurance €38 623 per year. That’s per full-time worker, not per household.
Wikipedia tells me the per-person median income in the USA is $56 287.
Thanks for the numbers! Seems pretty comfy, especially compared to a less developed country with greater disparity.
How’s your political climate these days? I know Germany is seeing AfD getting higher ratings for various reasons, but somehow never thought about its German-speaking neighbors.
Buying real estate has become impossible for most people.
For people in cities yes.
education is free
I dont know of which standards we are comparing us with, but the current trend goes into a bad direction. Education is free and you get what you pay for.
And the thing about the social system is also a matter of time if the polls turn reality.
Education is free and you get what you pay for.
I disagree. Take the technical university of Graz for instance. The work they accomplish regarding Cyber Security is quite amazing. Remember Meltdown and Spectre? Scientists from Graz were in key positions. Æpic Leak and SQUIP too.
What about Ferenc Krausz? He studied at the technical university in Vienna, and the team did some work in Vienna and they got the Nobel Prize this year.
Sure we have some smart people. Also Zeilinger from last year.
But first, will we be able to fill our programs with austrian smart people or are we more and more dependent on foreign students (I am not against foreign students, but I have experiences were 98% of program participants are foreign students)
Second, single geniuses will hardly be kept in austria. What matters for a nation is a broad distribution of (high) knowledge. Elementary and high schools are given more and more limited resources.
University is the same trend. Uni budgets are hardly pushing the inflation driven cost increas.
So for those who don’t want to give a click to this rag, here is the article published by the EU with links to the study: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Quality_of_life_indicators_-_overall_experience_of_life
Edit: updated the link as the one I posted was to the previous study from 5 years ago
This article is about the old study from 2018, not the new one from 2023. 2 of the links bellow lead to an empty page.
This is not about Europe, but EU. The title is garbage.
You’d have to take that up with The Independent.
The independent created the title here on Lemmy? You can edit it, you know.
Or just use the “Copy suggested title” and move on. Not sure why you get triggered by a title.
It’s wrong and misleading, and the "it’s Austria to save you a click” makes it worse, since you are inviting readers to digest this knowledge using only your misleading title and that sentence.
It’s rather amusing you can’t be bothered to fix your title when you know it is clearly wrong and you are willing to instead spend time defending your title in the comments.
There is enough poor content and misleading journalism on Reddit and elsewhere, I’m not sure why you want it here.
Now, since Austria is the happiest country in the EU it is quite possible also the happiest country in Europe. But we don’t have any source for that, so why defend it?
I’m not defending the title. I hate clickbait as much as anyone, which is why I put Austria as a comment. If I had changed the headline someone else would have objected to that. I use the one the paper sets. Always have, always will.
But if you feel so strongly about it, make a post with a headline that you agree with. Nothing stopping you.
Or just accept that papers have bad headlines sometimes and move on.
Luckily, there are easier ways to avoid poor content on Lemmy.
Aren’t EU country most wealthy in Europe?
Non-EU countries in Europe that are not currently candidates or waiting to join, are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, and now also UK.
Depending on how you measure, several of them are considered wealthy countries.
I see… Wait UK is rejoining?
Wasn’t that Denmark or Finland for many years in a row before?
Upvoted for saving me a click!
20 per cent of adults were “overwhelmed by anxiety”
This concerns me. To be struck down by anxiety in the first place, you have to give a fuck. Frankly, avoiding anxiety, even when you deserve it, is a big part of why not giving a fuck is so popular.
Anyways though, they’re people that care, just being bludgeoned by their information environment. Into paralysis, eventually, if it gets bad enough.
Anyone having a full list? This article is kinda free of information, and full of ads
This article is kinda free of information
I would say it’s … independent of information. Ba dum tss.
Ah, yes. We Germans are notorious “miesepetrig”.
In fact, we would be even more grumpy if there wasn’t Stuff to be grumpy about. Our highest compliment is “Für den Preis kann man nicht meckern.” (You can’t complain about it for that price).
How is Poland in second? I call bullshit on this article
EU != Europe
This is the best summary I could come up with:
New figures from the EU’s statistics agency rank Austria as the happiest country in the 27-member bloc.
Austria scored an overall 7.9 out of 10 in Eurostat’s annual publication of its “quality of life indicators”, which is based on surveys conducted throughout member states.
It said that factors such as level of education, family and financial stability impacted survey respondents’ overall satisfaction with their lives, rather than simply wealth.
Italy, Spain and France, three of the largest economies in the EU, all hover around the 7.1 average for the continent.
While the study does not indicate the cause behind the drop in the general life satisfaction of a German, it appears consistent with other polls that reflect a dip in the mood of the country’s residents.
Concerns appear to be related to Germany’s economic stagnation, the Ukraine war and immigration.
The original article contains 361 words, the summary contains 140 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=uy_kC4YfXrs
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Any chance this bot can also put the title of the video it is linking to?
We finished second. Oh well, that’s pretty good too
