We still have that tho. Lady kills all her babies cause she is depressed, one american example. There has always been suffering, and always will be. It's part of life, we cannot escape it.

No one makes big examples of people nowadays who commit suicide, it's very frequent, and almost expected. Suicide in our times, seems no big deal. How many of us know someone or more than one person who died at their own hands?

I don't know if we are more unhappy, I wasn't there, and neither were any of us. But no one can say we are more happy either. People cannot handle life now, regular life, why? Life is much different then back then, to the eye it might appear easier now, a lot easier, but it is just different. Much much different.

I am familiar with Anna Karenina. Suicide was a big deal in the 19th century, it was a major religious taboo. Socially, culturally it was a lot different then now. It would be very hard to compare now to then. Also that is a novel.. fiction, Tolstoy was a great writer.. But there are examples, that actually happened.

However suicide rates are up something like 60% in the last 50 years mostly in developing countries. Says something about our happiness in the last 50 years.