In reality, however, the thought of becoming poorer than a former Soviet republic is likely to make Germans unhappier still.

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Mindful that the city's residents grow ever unhappier, politicians have cooked up various schemes to bring water in from faraway places.

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The only unhappier group of brokers on Wall Street are the ones working for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney-another merger whose success is still pending.

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Worse still, working harder in order to be able to afford more material goods could even end up making people unhappier if they do not have enough spare time.

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Some people have retorted that such a canon should also reflect the unhappier moments in the Dutch past, including colonial wars and the failure to save many Jews from the Nazis.

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And status-conscious Manhattanites will be unhappier than all other New Yorkers put together if their number is up: especially if, as Nynex intends, they have to trade their trendy 212 for the less sexy 646.

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