"Every unhappy person that commits suicide raises the average happiness."
I doubt it.
"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 28,322 American deaths as suicides in the year 2000. Conservative estimates are that 6-10 people are intimately affected by each death. However, a study by the Baton Rouge, LA Crisis Intervention Center (Bland, 1994), the combination of possibly affected individuals reached over 28 people per suicide. In some families, the estimated numbers exceed 50 people (Coleman, 2003). Since, on average, 1,200 New Yorkers die by suicide each year, the latter estimate means approximately 60,000 people qualify as suicide survivors each and every year. This is equivalent to the population of the city of Utica (pop. 59,947, July 1, 2002)."
I doubt it.
"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 28,322 American deaths as suicides in the year 2000. Conservative estimates are that 6-10 people are intimately affected by each death. However, a study by the Baton Rouge, LA Crisis Intervention Center (Bland, 1994), the combination of possibly affected individuals reached over 28 people per suicide. In some families, the estimated numbers exceed 50 people (Coleman, 2003). Since, on average, 1,200 New Yorkers die by suicide each year, the latter estimate means approximately 60,000 people qualify as suicide survivors each and every year. This is equivalent to the population of the city of Utica (pop. 59,947, July 1, 2002)."
http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/savinglives/volume2/suicid...