People determine their own level of satisfaction based on comparisons to other people. Asian Americans may feel more depressed because they see themselves miss

People determine their own level of satisfaction based on comparisons to other people. Asian Americans may feel more depressed because they see themselves missing out on socialization and general "fun" that their western counterparts experience. However, Asians in their home countries (or in ethnically homogeneous American communities) may not feel more depressed because they only have each other as comparison. If no one is going out to parties on Friday night, then it is a lot harder to say "my parents are being unfair to me", or even feel it without expression. Now addressing your charge that this culture is "unnecessarily" cruel... if we find that giving people the opportunity to have fun over work leads to higher satisfaction and consequently lower suicide rates, we still can't call any specific balance of work vs. fun "unnecessarily cruel" without justification. It's a judgement call as to what level of 'fun' is a good thing for children to pursue at the expense of their intellectual, athletic, or social development. Is the level of depression, and suicide found in western cultures acceptable or unacceptable? Should we stop foisting 'work' and competitive rating (in the form of school in particular) on children who don't want it, in order to have a lower suicide rate? I'm not pointing at statistics here on purpose because this is a philosophical question rather than a quantifiable scientific one.