Are people happier in Europe or Asia vs the US?

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Eh, I don't think what people are saying about Asian countries is quite true.
The culture there is very friendly and so are the people.



However:

Those countries also have extremely competitive cultures and place very high worth on education and accomplishment.

Are you aware of how high the suicide rates are there?

In Taiwan, they have high students sign a contract saying they will not commit suicide during the school year--The idea is that signing the contract will boost their confidence or something.

They also take a survey at the beginning of the year, asking where the student would most likely commit suicide. Then they have a person patrol those places every day to check and stop people from killing themselves.


Similarly, one girl from Korea told me that at universities, during finals week, they actually put a line of caution tape 10 feet away from buildings on campus, so people don't get crushed by students jumping off the top. No, really.


In Japan, since the jobs are so competitive and demanding, they even have a special word for killing yourself from being bullied and overworked. It's called 'karoshi.'


The amount body-image problems women have in those countries is also very high. I've heard that some of the highest rates of anorexia are in Asian countries. One girl I met from China was obsessed with fashion magazines and her only meal each day was an apple and a bottle of mountain dew--I don't know how long she did this, but she was thin as a rail.
 
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