Andreas Oppenheimer: “If the people are not happy, populism wins”

What is the secret of happiness? The concept is vague, in fact, and doubts arise as to how it is measured, how long it lasts and where to look for it. Organizations, nations and families dream of spreading happiness. Andres Oppenheimer (Buenos Aires, 1951) Visited twenty countries to find the recipe for happiness. The decorated journalist and author, after six years on the job, has made his findings public. How to get out of the hole! It reflects the causes of discontent that shake the world and offers new formulas to leave negativity behind. A book full of experiences to put on the table Weaknesses of the system And look to the future.

Andres Oppenheimer This week he presented his book in Madrid. The Argentinian essayist has filled the arena not once, but twice and received public recognition. How to get out of the hole! It talks about, among other things, how to counter economic backwardness, how to curb populism and how to increase workers’ happiness. “If people are not happy, populism grows. Dissatisfaction makes the extremes win in more countries, and we saw it in Latin America,” the author admitted in a conversation. Infobay Spain. The Speaker also gave examples of that Chili, Peru And ArgentinaThree regions where extreme forces reached second round elections.

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“If we don’t adopt Principles to increase happiness“We’re going to have more and more populists and crazies in positions of power,” he added. The idea for the book, in fact, arose six years ago after a wave of demonstrations swept through Latin American cities. Andres Oppenheimer Remember that the biggest protests were in the most developed countries, where there were “many people who didn’t do badly.” There must be some explanation for this phenomenon and this journalist challenged himself to find it.

“We cannot fall into the trap of believing that happiness will replace economic growth. If you are poor and have nothing to eat, you are not going to be happy.. The key is to achieve both,” the journalist said in his conversation with this newspaper. The author focuses on the development of employment, inflation and social life. “Happiness is dangerous, because populists use it to cover their failures,” Oppenheimer explained. Curiosity led him to visit many countries to find out why their people live so well.

Andres OppenheimerDive into the sea of ​​skepticism, pack your bags and head to the countries with the highest levels of happiness, according to studies. Norway, Denmark, Finland And Swiss, among others, occupy top positions in the table. “Furthermore, I have visited some countries that are making attractive policies to improve people’s satisfaction. United Kingdom And this India. For example, in New Delhi, all government schools have a daily hour-long happiness class where children meditate, study endurance and study. Fear of failure”, he pointed out. The author hypothesizes that these activities influence job success: “A happy employee is more productive than one who drags himself out when he has to get to work.”

Fairness is also inversely related to citizen dissatisfaction. “It is no coincidence that the happiest countries in the world are the least corrupt. Leading capitals World Happiness Ranking, countries like Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland do not have to deal with this scourge. Countries with high levels of social unrest, such as Venezuela, have higher rates Corruption”, he explained. Andrés Oppenheimer collects, in How to get out of the hole!, with several examples to illustrate each of their propositions. “In the book I talk about a social experiment where I learned that 17,000 wallets were thrown away in various cities in 40 countries. The idea was to see how many people in each country returned the wallet. In Denmark, 82% of wallets were returned. In Spain, 58%. In Argentina, 49% – in Mexico, 18%. The correlation between corruption and happiness is obvious”.

Latin America is, in the author’s own words, a pessimistic continent. “We’re partisans, glad, but We have no social life Very serious. In surveys, we always win when asked how many times we laughed in the last 24 hours. But when we are asked about anxiety and depression, we also win. Satisfaction should be permanent”, pointing to Argentina. Lack of opportunities for young people, high rental prices and difficulties in making ends meet are three of the hidden obstacles behind this decision.

“Trust is not genetic, quite the opposite, because we can encourage it,” says the essayist. In his latest book, Andres Oppenheimer echoes many studies. One of them confirms that happy people live six to ten years longer than unhappy people. The negativity of Latin Americans is everywhere: Music, work and even history. However, the author considers that there are sufficient reasons to change the situation: “The world works better“We’re living longer, we’ve overcome pain, and our children have better conditions than our grandparents.” The keys to change everything are accessible to everyone and available at your trusted bookstore for a few days.