I always thought that high suicide rates in Norway and surrounding countries had a lot to do with lack of sunlight during the winters and some issue related to something the body needs to produce a certain chemical, related to sunlight. I know when I was in Scotland the freaking nights were LONG during the winter. Sunrise like at 10:00 am and sunset around 4:00 pm if I remember right.
Also, countries in SA that have, say, a low happiness index AND a low suicide rate could be because the people who are unhappy are those who are poor (usually the majority) and come from a long line of poor people who are used to "their lot in life" and live much more difficult lives than those in countries with high happiness indexes. They are simply used to a more difficult life and have overcome all manner of shit already just to be alive.
People in richer countries, even most of the poor there, have no real idea what poor is next to these truly poor people.
As far as paying people the same as you would in your home country to do similar labor - it makes no sense int he long run. It's not your responsibility to solve the country's issues and the cost of labor is what it is. In my opinion, it hurts no one to pay more than the going rate, which is almost always still cheap, and treat the workers with respect. You will brighten their lives while they work with/for you at the very least and in the meantime you can take advantage of the lower labor costs without feeling guilty.
I once got into a small argument with one of my Argentino programmers. He was all hot and bothered because he saw a documentary on Indonesia and how some workers were being paid and housed. As in many of these documentaries, they don't tell the whole truth. The workers were making something like $5 a day and were being housed in small dormitories which my programmer likened to cages.
My first remark was that I bet those who had the lodging in the small dorm rooms were doing a lot better then their counterparts who were living in a grass hut that leaked air and rain and possibly blew over in the wind. The $5 a day was probably 10 or 20 times what they were earning on subsistence farming and they were probably able to support their family much better on what they were making. And finally, they weren't being rounded up and forced to work as slaves - there were not enough slots for all the people who wanted those berths.
My programmer said "yeah, but it's still taking advantage of them." So I asked him - "do you feel like I'm taking advantage of you?" He looked at me and answered "of course not. You pay me very well. In fact, you pay me better than any other Argentine company would pay me or someone with my skills. And I'm not living in a cage."
First, he and his girlfriend lived in what I considered a cage. A one bedroom apartment, barely 35 square meters, in a 30-40 year old building. Terrible wooden floors that hadn't seen a renovation probably in all that time. No laundry room of course. A den and kitchen combination. No closets. A tiny bathroom that one could barely move in to close the door. No balconey, but a window that opened to a noisy street.
I paid him $22 US an hour. I hired him away from a company who, even for Argentina, was paying him too low of a salary at $13 US an hour. I let him know that the same job in the States, depending on experience and other factors, could be as high as $80-$90 US an hour without stretching, and I know a couple of people who make more than that. I asked him again if he thought I was taking advantage of him and if he thought the people in Indonesia that were making $5 US a day and living in clean, albeit small, lodgings were being taken advantage of. Thinking about it again, he got my point.
You can't come in and start paying people outrageous (to them and their countries) salaries. But paying more than normal and respecting them at the same time helps them quite a bit more than if there were no job, or a job at the usual rate under the usual conditions.
