For the past few weeks, I’ve been poking my way through Dan Buettner’s The Blue Zones of Happiness. Buettner started out 20 years ago looking for places in the world where an inordinately high number of people lived vital and healthy to a ripe old age.
Eventually Buettner couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that, in those places where people lived the longest and healthiest, the population was also markedly happier.
Costa Rica was one of the places that Buettner studied. Costa Ricans are markedly healthier than Americans - with lower rates of suicide, cancer deaths, diabetes, depression, and obesity. They have a significantly higher life expectancy (80.9 years vs 76.4). On many survey measures of self-reported happiness, they have scored higher than Americans. The graphic at the top is from the 2012 World Happiness Report - back before they skewed the results with a lot of extraneous data. Costa Rica rated number one in the world in Life Satisfaction.
Astoundingly, Costa Rica disbanded their armed forces in 1948, and has lived for the past 75 years without an army, a navy, or an air force.
Most North Americans would probably consider living without an army to be an almost suicidal lunacy. But let’s look at outcomes.
Over the past 75 years, Costa Rica has never been at war. Not once has a Costa Rican mother had to bury a son or daughter who died in war. Not once.
America, on the other hand, has been involved in war or military conflict somewhere in the world during most of the past 75 years. Between the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 85,000 American mothers have had to bury a son or daughter who died in combat.
For the past 75 years, Costa Ricans have spent nothing on the military. America’s huge military infrastructure now costs the better part of a trillion dollars per year. It is the single biggest expense propelling America rapidly towards bankruptcy.
Costa Rica has no enemies whatsoever. America’s list of past and present enemies or security threats is quite lengthy, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria. I suspect most Americans believe America needs a vast and intrusive military to protect itself against so many enemies. I don’t think it has even occurred to most Americans that America has so many enemies precisely because it has a vast and intrusive military.
Americans are often told that a free public health system would be way too expensive. How do we then explain that Costa Rica, with a per capita income a little more than one-sixth of that of America, can afford a free public health system? Not just free - but prevention-based. Where America’s healthcare system is illness focused, in Costa Rica, thousands of public health nurses visit every home each year to catch health problems early.
Dan Buettner identifies several reasons why people in Costa Rica are happier, healthier, and live longer than Americans.
A strong focus on friends, family and community is key. Costa Ricans take great pleasure in all their relationships - with extended family, with friends, with neighbours, even with co-workers. Costa Ricans laugh and socialize constantly, and find security in knowing that, if misfortune strikes, their friends, family, and neighbours will all pitch in to help them out.
Active participation in the Catholic faith further extends a strong sense of community.
Costa Ricans work less than Americans, which gives them a lot more time to make and enjoy home-cooked meals. (Remind me again - which is the poorer country?
The traditional diet in Costa Rica has lots of beans, fruits and veggies, and only modest amounts of meat and fish. It doesn’t include a lot of processed foods or fast foods.
A lifestyle with moderate levels of in-built physical activity helps.
The gap between rich and poor is much smaller in Costa Rica than in America. (A smaller gap between rich and poor is frequently correlated with greater health and happiness.)
There’s also an important environmental angle. Countries in the ‘Golden Billion’ - Canada, the US, Europe and Japan - are responsible for roughly 90% of the environmental damage occurring on our planet. Costa Rica does a better job of creating happiness, health and longevity than far richer countries, and does so with a far lower cost to the environment. (All of Costa Rica’s electricity comes from hydroelectric projects, for example.)
North Americans need to stop looking for happiness in all the wrong places. More economic growth is not the cure-all for America’s ills. Even getting rich personally might not have the desired results.
For several years, Dan Buettner has been involved in Blue Zone projects in the United States that get local communities involved in the kinds of activities and practices that have generated longevity, health and happiness in Blue Zone countries like Costa Rica. The results have been tantalizingly positive. Much more remains to be done.
PS: Canada does considerably better than the US in terms of health, happiness and longevity. That said, Costa Rica is able to create levels of health, happiness and longevity comparable to Canada while spending less than one-quarter of Canada’s per capita income. We may be rich, but we’re not very efficient at generating health or happiness.