It’s not even remotely the same, it’s nearly 50% higher than the US (which isn’t doing that great either).

South Korea has the 10th highest suicide rate in the world.

On the flip side, how much as South Korean society managed to advance in the 50 years compared to “happy America?”

Other countries have managed economic miracles without mass suicidal tendencies.

Plus, that explosive growth has ended. South Korea escaped poverty and now its growth rate is comparable to western countries with much better suicide rates.

You can hardly compare growth between economies in extremely different development stages directly.

Also the gap between Korea has remained constant since the 90s (in fact it even widened over the last 15 years or so)

The US government gave South Korean manufacturers access to the US market as part of the US strategy to fight the Cold War. Would South Korea have been able to get rich fast without that access?

> how much as South Korean society managed to advance in the 50 years compared to “happy America?”

It's apples and oranges. Compared to the U.S., how much did western Europe and Japan advance in the half-century preceding 2000, relative to where they started in 1945?

I think you missed my point: In 1945, western Europe and Japan were largely in ruins, so they could rebuild with then-modern technology and not be held back by the curse of the installed base.

(What have you got against being happy?)