Pants Optional
“On any given day, a Swedish man — call him Viggo — might be reclining on a sofa underneath a Danish lamp shaped like an artichoke. He is an artist, and he has a pension. He is wearing boldly colored pants.” But is Viggo really as content as he seems? Are his neighbors in Denmark really the happiest people in the world? The New Yorker’s Nathan Heller examines those questions and more and finds that “bliss of this kind is startling from a group of countries that are frozen half the year, subsist substantially on preserved fish, and charge among the highest tax rates in the modern world. One can be forgiven for wondering whether there’s something fishy about the so-called Nordic Miracle itself.” (Perhaps re-writing that opening description with one’s own country in mind can offer some clarity: On any given day, an American man — call him Dude — might be reclining on a Funyun-crumbed couch next to a portable refrigerator shaped liked a football helmet. He hates art. He lives off credit cards. And given that he has no plans on moving anytime soon, pants are entirely optional.)