{"id":16456944,"date":"2005-07-10T11:22:24","date_gmt":"2005-07-10T11:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=16456944"},"modified":"2005-07-10T11:22:24","modified_gmt":"2005-07-10T11:22:24","slug":"happiness-is-a-dutch-bicycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=16456944","title":{"rendered":"Happiness is a Dutch bicycle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/betsydevine.weblogger.com\/2005\/04\/07#a2231\">https:\/\/betsydevine.weblogger.com\/2005\/04\/07#a2231<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Making trouble today for a better tomorrow&#8230;<\/p>\n<table cellSpacing=\"0\" cellPadding=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td vAlign=\"top\"><a><\/a><br \/>\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/BetsyDevine.weblogger.com\/2005\/04\/07#a2231\">Happiness is a Dutch<br \/>\n      bicycle<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On page 32 of his new book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1594200394\/funnyhahaorfu-20\"><i>Happiness: Lessons from a New<br \/>\n      Science<\/i><\/a>, Richard <a href=\"https:\/\/betsydevine.weblogger.com\/2003\/03\/08\">Layard<\/a> charts<br \/>\n      happiness versus per capita income of various countries. The country with<br \/>\n      the highest percent who are &#8220;Happy&#8221; or &#8220;Satisfied&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands, by a good bit.<\/p>\n<p><p>Why? Dutch bicycles, if you want my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Holland has no monopoly on Layard&#8217;s big seven &#8212; family relationships,<br \/>\n      financial situation, work, community and friends, health, personal<br \/>\n      freedom, and personal values &#8212; factors he claims can account for much of<br \/>\n      happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s why the Dutch norm of bicycling everywhere creates more<br \/>\n      happiness:<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Exercise makes people&#8217;s bodies feel good.\n<li>Exercise lifts people&#8217;s spirits.\n<li>Bikers are not anonymous the way drivers are; hence their traffic<br \/>\n        interactions are much more civil.<\/p>\n<li>Riding a bike instead of a Hummer to work is just one example of the<br \/>\n        general Dutch aversion to flaunting wealth&#8211;the struggle to keep up with<br \/>\n        (or better) your neighbors creates much unhappiness in many cultures.<\/p>\n<li>Almost running over clueless American tourists who will go home and<br \/>\n        blog about you gets your pulses racing. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In that last area, Dutch<br \/>\n      bicycles have just made me happy as well.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/BetsyDevine.weblogger.com\/2005\/04\/07#a2231\">#<\/a> Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/BetsyDevine.weblogger.com\/profiles\/&#36;1\">Betsy Devine<\/a> on<br \/>\n      4\/7\/05; 10:15:39 AM &#8211; in<br \/>\n<i>Pilgrimages<\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>oldId.20050710103811251<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/betsydevine.weblogger.com\/2005\/04\/07#a2231 Making trouble today for a better tomorrow&#8230; Happiness is a Dutch bicycle On page 32 of his new book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, Richard Layard charts happiness versus per capita income of various countries. The country with the highest percent who are &#8220;Happy&#8221; or &#8220;Satisfied&#8221;? The Netherlands, by a good bit. Why? &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=16456944\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Happiness is a Dutch bicycle&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16456944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16456944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16456944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16456944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16456944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}