[gsuuon]

> ~9% of young people leave Bhutan

It's worse than that:

> 9% of the country's population, most of them young people

Young people want adventure, but all their homeland is offering is contentment. They need to account for the desire for opportunity in their GNH metric.

[konschubert]

Re-branding poverty as "contentment" may whoo some westerners, but probably not the people living off substinence farming.

[abdullahkhalids]

Depends entirely on the outlook of the person. I have met poor farmers in Pakistan who emphatically told me that my big city life was filled with work and devoid of meaning, while their slow village life was worth living. The sons had studied in the big city, had access to good employment opportunities, but told me they were desperately trying to get back to the village. It did seem that with access to technology, these farmers were working less per day than city workers.

These exist at the same time as other farming families who were trying to escape to the big city or other countries in search of employment and better life. The latter category is larger than the former, but still it all depends on outlook.

[selimthegrim]

And where exactly are these farmers living? Is it somewhere in Punjab with law and order situation, or a safe place?

[abdullahkhalids]

Inner Sindh, but not the worst parts of it, or the best. They did not report any law and order situation. Had access to the nearest city with a well built road. I think the biggest problem was poor quality drinking water and sewage treatment.

[selimthegrim]

My mom lived in Guddu for few years growing up in 70s (and other family in Daharki) so I often wonder what work had been done since then.

[rob74]

Well, I'm pretty sure the people living off subsistence farming in Europe during the Middle Ages were mostly content with their lives too (at least during peacetime), despite much worse education and health care than the modern Bhutanese are getting. The difference is that this was simply their way of life and they didn't have any alternatives. "Contentment" means being content with what you have - no matter if it's because you consciously decide that it's enough for you or because you simply don't know any better.

[konschubert]

We probably don’t disagree, but just to state the obvious: Being content with suffering through ignorance is still suffering.

Medieval subsistence farmers had to bury half of their children before the age of 5.