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Terrible things happening in Haiti again and when I watched the news the BBC news commentator she repeated four times that Haiti was one of the poorest countries in the world where the inhabitants lived on two dollars a day or less. This got me wondering, thinking about how many disasters that they have suffered recently, ad if Haitians had a high suicide rate.
Surprising when I read Durkheims theory of Suicide I learnt that just as many people committed suicide when they suddenly became rich as when they suddenly became poor.
I realised that being rich was quantified by how many goods and services one consumed and not on how happy one was then I was surprised to learn that the highest suicide rate was in Sweden where one is cosseted by the state from cradle until birth!

I wonder why that is?

Mike Freeman.

9 month winters and Ingmar Bergman !

Other than having enough for the basics of life, food, shelter, warmth etc. I see no evidence that people who are relatively well off are any less likely to commit suicide than the poor.

I think, in terms of happiness, being well-off falls way below, close family support, friends, love, faith etc in terms of promoting a feeling of well being.

Cheers
D

The problem is when you live in a society that is "well off" you always think other people have better holidays than you, or live in a better house than you, or have a better job than you, or are richer than you, or have more gadgets than you, or are happier than you.

So this envy can consume you and make you unhappy, even if compared to a person in Haiti we are ALL well off.

My daughter thinks the biggest disaster in her life is when she cant get a mobile phone signal.

Some of the biggest smiles I ever see is when they feature poor black people from a small village in Africa.

I think everybody goes through some very bad patches in life. It might be a loved one dying, going bankrupt, knocking up your wife's sister or whatever else. At the end of the day, it depends on how strong the individual is and the level of support they get.

I'm not advocating war but I think suicide rates drop during periods of war. And it's not because someone else does it for you, its because people have a common purpose and a feeling that suddenly everyone counts.

Its years after the war has finished that the veterans seem to start knocking themselves off. Vietnam vets have a terrible problem with this.

David Johnson,
You are so right to have a loving family around one is happiness.
Mike Freeman.

Doesn't it also have the highest ratio of HIV - 1 in 4 people or something too ?

Porn Historian,
So why are they topping thereself in Sweden and not in Haiti?
Mike Freeman.