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271 points nradov | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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incomingpain ◴[] No.42172690[source]
Admittedly I'm not familiar with bhutan. Besides basics, and buddhism connections. Lets take a look.

>Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay believes it is ironically the success of Gross National Happiness that has made young Bhutanese so sought after abroad.

They are 95th place for GDP.

125th place for HDI.

I wouldn't even consider working on 'happiness' with the numbers that bad.

Bhutan's balance of trade appears to be entirely negative. So the country is getting poorer.

Their GDP numbers are 5% growth every year? That seems impossible.

3% unemployment and 65% participation rate.

Lets call it a ~4-5% inflation average or worse.

6.8% interest rate, while never ever being below 6%? So they target what 5%? So its not that GDP growth at 5% is impossible. They are essentially saying they havent had gdp growth in decades, they are hiding a major depression?

In the last 10 years Bhutan has doubled their money supply, while population is leaving? LOL incoming government collapse.

government debt to gdp is ~130%. 100% is the magical threshold you're not allowed to cross. If you're the federal reserve and Tbills reputation might allow you to go above 100% like the USA in 2020... but Bhutan has no such ability. They likely cant cross ~40% if i were to estimate.

Major deficit spending across the last 25 years.

Sales tax of 50%

Income tax of 30%

>Bhutan was, and is today, largely a subsistence agricultural society. Many families still live in multigenerational farmhouses.

I'd be leaving as well. Nobody is seeking Bhutan people. The bhutan people are fleeing the inevitable.

Bhutan is about 20% debt/gdp from a venezuela level collapse. If by some magic they dont collapse there, they are about 40% from a greece like collapse.

Bhutan is already about 10% higher than the Sri Lankan collapse.

Fleee Bhutan while you can.

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no_wizard ◴[] No.42172749[source]
All this seems to be conjecture. Maybe its true that their economy will falter hard, maybe not.

I wish we could hear from actual Bhutanese people rather than look at statistics. I suspect the reason people leave is more complex than this.

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1. incomingpain ◴[] No.42172971[source]
Problem: Young bhutanese are fleeing the country and its a huge problem.

Government: "we're doing such a great job, people want to leave."

That's the conjecture, or is it more comedy?

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2. no_wizard ◴[] No.42172994[source]
It boils down to applying western logic to a non western country. I get a little suspect that the statistics aren’t telling the full story.

I do think the government optimizing for happiness doesn’t equal optimizing for fulfillment, which isn’t always the same thing.

So people leave, despite perhaps a generally good happiness vibe. It’s like people who leave a Western European country for the US, because they feel their home countries can’t provide the experience they’re looking for.

Then again, it’s perhaps all a facade

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3. mdp2021 ◴[] No.42173027[source]
> flagged for having my opinion

You'll sooner be bashed for gratuitous drama.

On topic: people both need meaning and creature comforts. No meaning, they'll wait for death; no comfort, they'll move, that was the brain is there for.

4. konschubert ◴[] No.42173199[source]
It's all facade.

The fact that people are leaving in droves tells you all you need to know.

Unless the argument is that people are happier when imprisoned.

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5. no_wizard ◴[] No.42173900{3}[source]
I don’t think anyone is comparing Bhutan to prison? That isn’t an apt comparison.

I’d be more interested in what young Bhutanese people have to say. If it’s economic opportunity they seek then it can be dealt with locally (and they seem to recognize that), if it’s something deeper that would also be very interesting to know.

Humans aren’t as rational as some like to believe