Americans Happier, Says Report

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Citizens of the United States may be happier than acknowledged by some, according to the Legatum Prosperity Index. Legatum is an international investment organization.

Australia led the top-twenty countries in the happiness list on which America ranked a happy fourth.

“The USA remains the world’s sole global military, economic, and cultural superpower: a position that it has occupied since the end of the Cold War. American democracy is robust and its citizens enjoy high levels of personal and economic freedom,” says the report.

And it adds: “In recent years, however, the economy has been buffeted by natural disasters, the global credit crunch, the huge cost of reconstruction in Iraq, and a national collapse in the housing market. National infrastructure is also increasingly in need of renewal. Despite widespread affluence and low overall levels of crime, there are many areas of significant poverty, particularly among African-Americans and Hispanics.”

Ghanaians, who for a while now were considered serious candidates for membership on the list of fastest-developing nations, top the list of 20 poorest performers released by Legatum. Other “bad boys” include Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria and now perennial under-achiever, Zimbabwe.

Twelve of the 20 worst-performers were from Africa.

The report’s authors, William Inboden and Ryan Streeter, told this writer than African nations still have a long way to go in raising incomes, commercializing innovations, growth in invested capital, and good governance on economic and political issues.

Both Inboden and Streeter have worked at high levels within American public and private sectors, including on national security.

Africa expert at the American Enterprise Institute Roger Bate said he had been impressed by the report, but called for clarity on whether the index would be a policy tool or merely another measure of category.

He said African countries lagged behind on the index because they continue to suffer from a democratic deficit, torn between pleasing donors and their own people.

Franck Wiebe, chief economist for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, hailed the report as “a bold and intellectually exciting activity,” which he said satisfies every concern his organization has had about the measure of global happiness. He said the key to success for all nations lies in ruling justly, investing in people and pursuing policies that foster economic freedom.

Jesse Masai is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.