FUN TO BE FINN
Nordic land named world’s happiest country
STRUGGLING TOYS “R” Us reportedly told its workers Wednesday it will sell or close all its U.S. stores — and Sen. Chuck Schumer is pressing federal regulators to let customers turn in unspent gift cards before that happens.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the collapse threatens up to 33,000 jobs; the toy retailer has more than 700 stores in the U.S.
The chain, with about $5 billion in debt, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September. It has struggled to compete with online retailer Amazon and huge chains like Walmart. It has seen toy sales decline as kids increasingly turn to playing games on mobile devices.
Schumer, the Senate minority leader, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission to make sure the New Jersey-headquartered company follows all the laws as it begins to liquidate.
“It appears the music is about to stop for the iconic retailer and consumers could be left in the lurch when it comes to the loss of a whole lot of money in unspent gift cards,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. FINLAND is the happiest place on Earth, according to the 2018 World Happiness Report of 156 nations.
The report, released Wednesday by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks the countries of the world based on where they stack up within six different categories of well-being: income, freedom, trust, life expectancy, generosity and social support. This year’s report also pays special attention to the happiness of each country’s immigrants.
The U.S. dropped four spots from 2017 and landed in 18th place, and last year’s winner, Norway, came in second, followed by two more Scandinavian nations — Denmark and Iceland — and Switzerland.
“The top five countries all have almost equally high values for the six factors found to support happiness, and four of these countries — Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland (flag, inset)— have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report” in 2012, coeditor John Helliwell told CNN. “In a division with such excellent teams, changes in the top spot are to be expected.”
Rounding out the top 10 happiest countries was Canada in sixth place, then New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.
The order of the top 10 nations changed from the 2017 list but the countries did not, according to the report. They were also 10 of the 11 top spots in the immigrant happiness category (including Mexico — 24th overall, but 10th in immigration).
“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” Helliwell said in a statement. “Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”
The U.S. decline in the rankings could be attributed to a number of factors, the report said, listing the obesity epidemic, substance abuse and untreated depression.
Other major world powers placed in lower spots on the list. Germany came in 15th, Britain was 19th, followed by Japan in 54th place, Russia in 59th and China in 86th.
Burundi finished in last place, closely followed by Central African Republic (155th), South Sudan (154th), Tanzania (153rd) and Yemen (152nd).
The report, based on surveys completed by citizen volunteers, comes just under a week before World Happiness Day on March 20, when the U.N. declared to recognize “the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives.”