In China, wealth does not mean happiness as suicides and unnatural deaths among rich on rise

Source  : ET :27 NOV, 2011, 04.00AM IST, 
By: Yu Ran (China Times) 





For Jiang Jie, 34, wealth did not mean happiness. He attempted suicide about six years ago after he went from being a millionaire to penniless over the course of a month.


 "I never felt so depressed," Jiang said. "I seemed to lose my faith in life after a huge investment failure left me with almost no money." 

Recent decades have brought wealth within the grasp of a greater proportion of the population than ever before. 
According to the Hurun Wealth Report 2011, one out of every 1,400 Chinese residents, or 960,000 individuals, have assets worth at least 10 million yuan ($1.57 million), a number that has increased by 9.7% since 2010. 

Of these, 55% are business owners, 20% property speculators, 15% stock advisers and 10% salaried executives. 

China is also home to 60,000 of the "super-rich", who have 100 million yuan or more, a number that has increased by 9% since 2010. 

That new-found wealth has undoubtedly brought many blessings. But not necessarily longevity, statistics show. 

The past eight years have seen the deaths of 72 millionaires and billionaires who had a net worth of more than 100 million yuan. Nineteen died from illnesses and 53 from unnatural causes such as suicide, accident and murder, according to an analysis of media reports conducted by the Changchun-based metropolitan newspaperNew Culture Daily. 

That death rate was similar to the police, the job with the highest risk factor in the country. From 2008 to 2010, three out of every 10,000 police officers died on duty. 

What is the cause of the high death rate among the extremely rich? Jiang's case offers at least a partial answer. 

Jiang was born to a well-to-do family that ran a steel company in Anshan, Liaoning province. When he was 16, he dropped out of senior high school and took over his father's company. Four years later he had made his first million yuan. 

Although many people undoubtedly envied him for his good fortunes, getting rich wasn't the best thing that could have happened to him. By his own admission he became arrogant and acquisitive. Against his parents' advice, he put all of his money into land that was eventually to be turned into a holiday resort, an investment he said he considered to be "very promising". A month later, the organiser of the project declared bankruptcy. 

Learning of his misstep, Jiang took a bottle of sleeping pills with the goal of killing himself. He was only saved through the intervention of his parents. 

Looking back on his brush with death, Jiang said it was just what he needed to gain a new lust for life. 

"Even though I'm now just an ordinary white-collar worker at a company, I'm happier and no longer feel the need to make so much money, " he said. 
Other Cases 

One example of an extremely rich man who died before his time can be seen in Li Haicang, the founder of the Highsee Iron and Steel Group Co Ltd in Shanxi province. Li was shot in the back of the head in 2003 by a friend who then killed himself. The police later ruled that the slaying had been the result of a commercial dispute.