People in most developing countries have reasons to feel happier thanbefore, probably because they live their lives forward. Being relatively poor,they are happier in knowing who they really are, then doing what they need to doin order to have what they want. To them happiness is more like a direction formotivation than a place for leisure. Also, they are more capable of recognizingand appreciating what they do have. In short, they feel happier exactly becausethey do not expect too much happiness. This mentality is different from peoplein developing countries who have large incomes but also large expenses, oftenresulting in negative balance sheets.
In sum, the only way to avoid being unhappy in life, whether referring to adeveloped country or a developing country, is to have happy thoughts aboutliving within their means and having something to hope for. Per capita incomecan no longer be the only measure for economic happiness, judging from the factthat people in developed countries are not as happy as they used to be. Withoutany doubt, the lesson about being happy is for an individual as well as for acountry to perform a balancing act between incomes and expenses.