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Comment by throwaway2990 | Hacker News Reader

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Maybe the reason why people are so miserable in your country is because they execute people. Drug use is a symptom, not a cause. A society that devalues life to the point normalizing of ending of it can never be a happy one. People abuse drugs to escape, what do you think they're trying to escape from?

If it's the drugs and the dissemination of them that you find are objectionable enough to murder those who participate, my nice pharmacy lady is just as guilty. You want her to die, or you're a hypocrite.

Looking at America vs Singapore. Pretty sure America is WAY more miserable. Singaporeans are probably miserable about the heat if anything. Because the safety of the country is amazing. You can chop a table in a cafe with your phone and no one will touch it. You can walk down the street with 100k hanging out of your pocket and no one will touch you. You can be a female walking in an alley at night and not worry about being raped.

In America you get shot just for being yourself.

What makes you think people are “miserable?” East Asia has the lowest percentage of people who say they desire to emigrate elsewhere out of anywhere in the world: https://news.gallup.com/poll/468218/nearly-900-million-world.... Just 4%, versus 15% in North America.

A statistic showing a lack of desire to emigrate can't be equated to a happiness rating, given how political belief and other biases can be equal or greater factors.

Different cultures don’t equate “wellbeing” with “happiness” in the same way. To me, “happiness” is for children. For adults, I’d use something like “satisfaction” or “contentment.”

I also see smoking, alcohol and gambling destroy families yet they are all legal in Singapore. Heck, they even built not 1 but 2 casinos in recent years.

Those casinos have been there for over 10 years. And locals have to pay to enter. And regularly get black listed. Locals with gambling problems are problems for the government and society. Foreigners gambling isn’t a problem.

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