Why does it seem that people in poorer countries are happier? (1 Viewer)

[brekker]

From what you are saying and what I can find it seems that the suicide rate did indeed peak in the 90s, and has since then been decreasing for the most part. If you want to compare suicide rates, poor countries lead that as well, with richer countries making appearances primarily based on how bad their view of mental health is (for example South Korea). The lists may not show everything ofc, but I still think that the idea of people being happier in poor countries doesn't have much to back it up other than anecdotal evidence.

anecdotal evidence from people who have migrated to rich countries and are thinking about going back? that´s quite belittling to people and their opinions, don´t you think?
how can you say that to a person? sorry, but that´s really arrogant to say.

 

[blueberries]

I guess it comes down to what happiness is. I definitely think you can be poor and happy, but having bad living conditions make it harder to be happy because you might go hungry, not have access to health care or not have as much freedom to decide what you do when u grow up. In other hand you can be rich and everything alright outside, but suffer from depression.

I definitely think lot of happiness i based on mindset and being satisfied with your current life so happiness isnt really objective. However even if you smile outside, you might not be happy with life as things like smiling can be somewhat cultural. For example smiling at strangers comes of insincere and opportunists in some cultures (mine included), when in others bright smiles are expected.

 

[Ahsoka]

anecdotal evidence from people who have migrated to rich countries and are thinking about going back? that´s quite belittling to people and their opinions, don´t you think?
how can you say that to a person? sorry, but that´s really arrogant to say.

So by your reasoning transgender people belong in their birth sex because some people detransition? It uses the same logic of thinking that because one person feels that way everyone else does as well. Anecdotal evidence is not and will never be proof unless you ask a sufficiently large portion of people about their feelings.

 

[brekker]

So by your reasoning transgender people belong in their birth sex because some people detransition? It uses the same logic of thinking that because one person feels that way everyone else does as well. Anecdotal evidence is not and will never be proof unless you ask a sufficiently large portion of people about their feelings.

literally don´t understand why you are bringing sexuality into this? I have mentioned that I have read several comments by people who have said they felt happier when they were poorer and you go and say how it is anecdotal as to belittle someone else´s opinion.
of course not everyone will agree, but same can be said about "richer countries are happier" or "with more resources ,better education you will be happier" etc. but telling someone their opinion is nothing but a joke unless you ask a certain number of people and they all agree.

 

[hAJIMAAAA]

you criticize how it is a very "rich 1st world person" way to think about people in the third world suffering because of their poverty by using an argument that sounds 3000% more like a "rich 1st world person", assuming people in the third world or in poorer countries don't know that there is better, or at least different, life out there. The romanticization of poverty is just as much of a problem in the first world as its demonization.

The fact that there are some people who think this way doesn't mean it's the rule, as a matter of fact, your examples just proved it. That old man from the documentary was talking about how the youth went out to look for happiness. It is one man vs a whole youth, a whole group, a whole age group that saw that the world out there was different. Whether they knew about that life's flaws is besides the point, the point is that they know there is a different life, and most of us can't just ignore the fact that it exists or give up on reaching it if it means having it a little bit better. Only one of them ignored it, and not even because he denied life could be better, but because he understood it would be a hard path to trail.

Globalization exists. In the current world more than ever. We know that we're not happy and we know our life isn't the best, even in the poorest of countries, a majority of people still live in cities and have enough access to media - even if outdated - to feel this way. With very few exceptions. As a matter of fact, in poor countries the majority of people are more likely to live in the bigger cities and capitals.
Most of the world isn't farms and tribes without internet, even in most of the averagely poor african country they also have tv and internet to a decent extend, and we want to live in it, we want to live in that tv, in that world that we see through a screen. The logic of knowing no better might've applied 80 years ago or so, but not anymore at all. I live in a third world country in a humanitarian crisis, i watch tv, i speak english, i am here in a kpop forum, i am not the only one either, a majority of my friends are the same. I know how korea is thanks to hallyu, i know how the united states can be thanks to media and internet, even with their flaws, because we are also not all so ignorant that we are blind to the 1st world's problems. But many of us sure hope we could have them instead. Everyone i know does, as a matter of fact, even older people, because they also have or have had at some point in their life access to television, movies, magazines, newspapers and the radio at the very least.

But in return we have to worry about not having (already disgustingly unsanityary) water for a week, which, yes, is necessary to wash dishes, drink, shower, cleanse food, cook, use the toilet, wash our hands in the middle of a damn pandemic, and that isn't exactly simpler or happier. Even when i'm used to it, it's still hard, i still wish it wasn't like that. We shouldn't be "humbly happy" about getting food, because we shouldn't have to worry and struggle every day and every week for food to begin with. We should be thankful? yes, we should be thankful about everything i suppose, but we shouldn't need to be thankful because god gave us a chance to get a full meal for the first time in the month. And even if we had more, we shouldn't become stagnated conformists, ever.
People who live in isolated communities, small towns, don't have access to media or some form of the modern world who think this way are not the rule, by a long shot, they are the exception in a majority of the third world, they are minorities even in their own countries and often they still have had some sort of exposure to the rest of the world that is enough to know that there is different and bigger world out there, as outdated as their view of it might be. With very few exceptions. Even in that documentary you described, you could see that they still knew there was a world out there even if some refused to give in to it. That's how hard it is to find those exceptions.

And all this, not to mention the fact that even if we didn't know better, as @Yili said, that does not justify it. And even then, even if we know no better, even people who aren't exposed to the outside world know how much of a stress it can be at times to have to struggle constantly for the most basic of things such as water, food and health, trying to at least merely survive to then realize you're not living life, just surviving at all times with no purpose in the long run, knowing that, to most, this cycle is almost inescapable. Many might not have something to compare it to, but many know, at the very least, that they wish life could be easier, better and longer. That they could spend more time with their families, friends, lovers, learning, "humbly" appreciating the world instead of constantly stressing and struggling about what's next in the inhumanly long task of excruciatingly small details we have to run through with the most care to, at the very least, be able to have something edible at the table.

 

[badcrookshanks]

nah we're not

 

[Darkseid]

Eh as someone in a poorer country, I've definitely never felt this way. And I'm not like in the most privileged section of my country either.

It goes both ways I guess, that's why so many people want to move to first world countries in the hopes of a better life- where the minimum wage is a lot higher, you can afford more for yourself and even send money back to your family. Of course no place is perfect and each scenario brings its own set of problems with it, but I've seen people in poverty and also from well off families around me and I wouldn't call them happier by any means.

I'm not saying more material stuff equals happiness, but what a lot of people have for granted in developed countries, we need to struggle for. Drinking water, food supplies, electricity, education, financial security- a lot of poor people can't guarantee this. They have to work and earn daily wages just to feed their families. When they get sick, they don't have money to pay their bills. Go out on the streets and you'll see so many beggars and physically handicapped people who have no other way to earn money.

 

[brekker]

this question seemed to stir up a lot of emotions and some misunderstanding. what I have meant was based on a fact that whenever you go to a country that is poor according to their GDP, people often seem miserable. It is like wealth cannot buy happiness, but on the contrary. People who live in countries like Japan, South Korea but also the States etc. often feel so stressed out they forget what happiness really is. So yes, they do have access to better healthcare, better education, better ... materialistic things in general, but they seem to pay the prize of mental well-being, closeness of people, family and in general just being chill and being thankful for a pure fact of "surviving a day". Is that enough? A lot of people here have said no, that is just existing but ... maybe, maybe you should think about it as ... hell, yeah, it is enough! you have lived another day and that´s the most important!
In many very developed countries, why is it that people are more ignorant to the suffering of others while in those "poorer" countries (economically) speaking, people are more eager to help each other? Why is it that the communities are stronger? A lot of African countries (not all, but a lot) have a really strong tribal system that is not at all just what we imagine as horrible punishments towards women etc. (I dunno just insert the worst of the worsts like mutilation of young women etc.) but many of them offer safety and help. In one of my documetaries (yes, yes, I do watch a lot of them, ok) one of the women had 15 children and when asked what does she do to feed them, she said pottery and then her tribe helps her.
Now when I look at the country I live in, having so many children is a no, if even a woman had so many children, the whole society would cover their eyes and say "if you wanted them, feed them yourself". Sure, some social help would be there (benefits go up to 5 children though) and that´s it. No one would lend a finger and if they did, it would be the middle one.
I kind of feel like the answers answer my question themselves. The importance, the happiness is measured by good education, good job, money etc. at least that is how the majority have taken it.

I´m not saying that life in South Sudan is happy, happier than in my safe little cushion of a person that had seen war only in the TV. Not at all, but that is an extreme example that I had not wanted to provide. Of course when your life is in danger, and that could happen to any developed or underdeveloped country, you are far from happy. But I fear like that North Korean defector that said "if only I say that something is better in NK, people just yell at me to go back."

It is like living in a big villa versus living in a small flat. When you live in a small flat without money. You are stressed about money but you are closer to your family, you know what is important (thanks God that I have eaten today!) and you appreciate it. While when you live in a big villa, you are happy with that swimming pool but soon it will become boring.

And before anyone else comes up with their superb opinion, I wanna tell you, I know what poverty is. My childhood was living with a dry toilet, a yoghurt shared by four people and a warm mean once a day. And perhaps that was all I needed.

 

[hAJIMAAAA]

this question seemed to stir up a lot of emotions and some misunderstanding. what I have meant was based on a fact that whenever you go to a country that is poor according to their GDP, people often seem miserable. It is like wealth cannot buy happiness, but on the contrary. People who live in countries like Japan, South Korea but also the States etc. often feel so stressed out they forget what happiness really is. So yes, they do have access to better healthcare, better education, better ... materialistic things in general, but they seem to pay the prize of mental well-being, closeness of people, family and in general just being chill and being thankful for a pure fact of "surviving a day". Is that enough? A lot of people here have said no, that is just existing but ... maybe, maybe you should think about it as ... hell, yeah, it is enough! you have lived another day and that´s the most important!
In many very developed countries, why is it that people are more ignorant to the suffering of others while in those "poorer" countries (economically) speaking, people are more eager to help each other? Why is it that the communities are stronger? A lot of African countries (not all, but a lot) have a really strong tribal system that is not at all just what we imagine as horrible punishments towards women etc. (I dunno just insert the worst of the worsts like mutilation of young women etc.) but many of them offer safety and help. In one of my documetaries (yes, yes, I do watch a lot of them, ok) one of the women had 15 children and when asked what does she do to feed them, she said pottery and then her tribe helps her.
Now when I look at the country I live in, having so many children is a no, if even a woman had so many children, the whole society would cover their eyes and say "if you wanted them, feed them yourself". Sure, some social help would be there (benefits go up to 5 children though) and that´s it. No one would lend a finger and if they did, it would be the middle one.
I kind of feel like the answers answer my question themselves. The importance, the happiness is measured by good education, good job, money etc. at least that is how the majority have taken it.

I´m not saying that life in South Sudan is happy, happier than in my safe little cushion of a person that had seen war only in the TV. Not at all, but that is an extreme example that I had not wanted to provide. Of course when your life is in danger, and that could happen to any developed or underdeveloped country, you are far from happy. But I fear like that North Korean defector that said "if only I say that something is better in NK, people just yell at me to go back."

It is like living in a big villa versus living in a small flat. When you live in a small flat without money. You are stressed about money but you are closer to your family, you know what is important (thanks God that I have eaten today!) and you appreciate it. While when you live in a big villa, you are happy with that swimming pool but soon it will become boring.

And before anyone else comes up with their superb opinion, I wanna tell you, I know what poverty is. My childhood was living with a dry toilet, a yoghurt shared by four people and a warm mean once a day. And perhaps that was all I needed.

If you didn't want anyone else to "come up with our superb opinion" then you shouldn't have posted this, much less so as a question, it is a public forum, you have the right to think however you want as much as we have to disagree and think however we want as well. Once again, the fact that one or two people, hell even 2000 or 3000 people in a country of millions thinks this way does not mean everyone is, much less so such a generalization as is "poorer countries are happier", as said by me and vikki, as much as you didn't understand her point, which is why the question that the thread posted was inherently wrong. That stress that you say is worth for the sake of being closer to a family is what often separates families, what often destroys them and makes people volatile from pent up stress, that stress is also what separates many of them because they can never spend time doing something that isn't dealing with the daily struggle. And i could go on forever, but i won't. To most of us, memories like that aren't that warm.
And It is not that anecdotal evidence doesn't matter, but the same way that you can't ignore one person's story and feelings, you can't ignore the unsung stories and feelings of millions more because of a few. You even put your own anecdotal experience here, and that's fine, but some of us here put our anecdotal evidence, our stories and feelings here, yet you overlooked them because of your own experience and what you saw. So you care about the old man's and your story, feelings and experience, but you don't care about the others ones and theirs. So we must hear yours, but you can't hear ours, even if it's the majority (?). This way, to me, it appears that you are being much, much more insensitive than what you had accused others of being. By a lot.

Once again, the fact that you or a few others would be happier does not mean others will, much less so such a generalization as "people in poorer countries are happier". And this is gonna come off as insensitive, just as insensitive as you came off to many of us, but a dry toilet and a warm meal a day is much more than most of us have had. You can go back to that if you want, of course, but for us, it would mean coming back to much, much less than that.

 

[eclipsoul]

some of them are both poor and unhappy like poland lmao

 

[Handcrafted]

I think money brings out the bad and greed in us where as people who have less are more appreciative to things in life.

 

[Mayday]

You can’t miss what you’ve never had.

 

[Villains]

hmm i sort of believe that because my whole family wishes to go back to pakistan because they were happier there

 

[SnowWhite]

The happiest countries are usually the Scandinavian countries aren't they? That being said I do get you point. The suicide rate in first world countries is usually higher, I think it is religion that stops people from committing suicide. It is very frowned upon. Also they are more open toward jokes in general. I do think westerners tend to get really easily offended nowadays while the 3rd world usually chooses to just laugh it off.
This mostly counts for those of them who are living more normally though. The country in which I live has streets filled with beggars and homeless people, while you pass by them their situation seems very miserable.