>>66695So by that measure of "happiness", Japan must be fucking awful, right?
Doesn't quite work that way. Suicide, like various criminal activity, corruption, alcoholism etc is all related to the cultural DNA of a country. Even with a major and effective push to curb things like that they wouldn't change much. Eg if for some strange reason the Kremlin pushed for a crackdown on problem drinking, very little would change even if they tried very hard with a lot of support (which would diminish... excessive drinking is just the 'Russian' thing to do)
Don't underestimate cultural impact. Just because you can't quantify it (which technically makes Japan and the US the "happy" places to be by a quantified definition, obviously bullshit, both countries have serious social problems not that much worse than some developing nations)
Honestly, I feel the problem is not so much material wealth. A good question to ask yourself is 'how much material wealth need I have to be happy?'. Most likely you do not require that much to appreciate the best things in life - a good education, good sex with good girlfriends, culturally vibrant living is really the life blood of a good society. In fact despite the enormous material wealth brought on by the industrial economy, many people as far back as the 17th/18th centuries and earlier were in fact much happier and content than you might suppose.
TL;DR you can be pretty fucking rich and miserable and culture matters