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gwern comments on Is Kiryas Joel an Unhappy Place? - Less Wrong
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The best way to know that is to ask them if they are happy/unhappy. The next best way is to look at proxy measures of happiness or unhappiness.
Money is an extremely poor proxy measure of happiness. In fact the amount of money that one has is almost completely unimportant to ones happiness (with some obvious exceptions). Ones beliefs about the direction ones money is heading is however fairly important for most peoples happiness, if one is or one thinks that one will be gaining more then one is happier, but once one has that extra money then one is just about as happy as one was before one knew that one might get that money.
The divorce rate and the suicide rate are the two best proxies that I am aware of for unhappiness. Knowing that when compared to the rest of the nation should roughly tell us if they are happier or unhappier then anyone else.
And not especially useful proxies in this case; while divorce is permitted, I would be deeply surprised if it did not come with huge social sanctions and other deterrents in Kiryas Joel. Suicide is outright forbidden.
Finally, JoshuaZ points out that the ultra-Orthodox generally lie/under-report about that sort of thing.