A recent poll released by the Ceske Noviny newspaper released statistical numbers which suggest that the Czechs are one of the biggest pessimists in the European Union. Over 30,000 of participants were asked two questions:
1/ Do you think your lifestyle is going to improve in the next year?
- only 22% of Czechs said “yes”
- among the lowest five nations ranked also Hungary, Portugal and surprisingly also Austria and Germany
2/ Do you think that your lifestyle is going to get worse in the next year?
- Czechs took a second place in this one; 27% of Czechs actually believe their style of living will worsen.
- The biggest pessimists showed to be the Hungarians (37%)
- And who came up as the biggest optimist regarding the future? The Slovaks! 29% of them strongly believe in better times..
On average the level of optimism among the states of EU unfortunately decreased. People are stressed out mostly about the inflation and as well as the economic situation as a whole.
The Czech pessimism was also expressed by one of the readers of the Ceske Noviny article who commented:” Well, no wonder our situation sucks. The government is shit, the president is shit, what can we expect?” I guess he summoned up the Czech not-so-happy atmosphere pretty well…
Nedavny vyzkum verejneho mineni v Bruselu ukazuje, ze Cesi jsou jednim z nejpesimistictejsim narodem v Evropske unii. Na otazku, zda-li si mysli, ze se jim v nasledujicim roce zivot zlepsi pouze 22% odpovedelo pozitivne. Do “depresivni petice” se take radi Madarsko, Portugalsko, Nemecko a Rakousko. Na otazku, zda-li si mysli, ze se jim zivot v pristim roce jeste zhorsi, se Cesi umistili na druhem miste (27% ), kde prvni misto obdrzelo Madarsko (37%). K velkym optimistum patri tento rok Slovaci, kde si celkem 29% obyvatel mysli, ze se jejich ekonomicka situace pristi rok zlepsi. Celkove ale doslo k poklesu optimismu ve vsech zemich EU; nejvice se lide boji inflace a hospodarske situace.
Jeden ze ctenaru na tohoto clanku komentuje: ” kdyz to tady vypada tak, jak to vypada. Vlada na hovno, president na hovno, tak co muzeme cekat?”; to myslim vystihuje tento depresi postoj vyborne…
http://www.financninoviny.cz/zajimavosti/index_view.php?id=287395
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In regards to the reader’s comment- that’s what you get when you look to the government for happiness. Shit.
This has to do something with our ‘national identity’ or I don’t know how to call it- when there was a research, where they asked simple question: are you happy? Most of Czechs replied simply: no. Funny is countries like Vietnam, Thailand or Cuba came out of this much better, which show money is not the problem.
When Americans are asked: “How are you?” I have never heard an answer like: “everything sucks” But try to ask any Czech and soon or later you will hear “Stojí to za hovno” meaning the same.
This won’t change, but I don’t think we have bad living here – we just think we have…
That is a great comment Elen! I guess it is part of our national identity; sad but true. Let’s hope that the future generations will catch some of that optimism from their surrounding – happier – countries. Just one more point: I personally think that Czechs do get (or feel) happy quite a lot but they just don’t say it out loud…If they did, they would end up having no friends…:)
PS: All that to say, I do have Czech friends (living in Czech) that when you ask them how they were they do tell you – and out loud(!!) – that they are quite happy.
People , who wait for government to give them happiness, will always be unhappy. People should look for happiness in their families, with their spouses, lovers or boths 🙂 People who give more than take are more happy. It is good to have money and live a comfortable live but it makes one so much happy to be able to give back to society…..
could not agree more…..