Posted on 07/26/2014 11:51:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Happiness is not equally distributed across the United States.
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser, University of British Columbia economics professor Joshua Gottlieb, and Harvard graduate student Oren Ziv tracks how people's self-perceived happiness varies among American cities.
The researchers used data from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an extensive survey coordinated by the CDC that tracks health behaviors and risk factors. One of the questions on the survey asks respondents how satisfied they are with their lives, with the four options of "very dissatisfied", "unsatisfied", "satisfied", and "very satisfied". This survey data is frequently viewed as an approximate measure of self-reported well being, or how happy people feel about their lives.
The paper focuses on differences in respondents' self-reported life satisfaction among cities. Using a statistical model controlling for various individual demographic characteristics, like age, gender, race, education, marital status, and parenthood, the authors were able to estimate the impact that location has on respondents' happiness.
The authors found that, after controlling for all the demographic variables, there was still a fairly strong amount of variability between cities.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
My county and the one next to it (both conservative) are the happy ones in Washington State. I’m not all that overjoyed but that’s my problem. Not sure why Idaho isn’t right up there.
Exuberant happiness throughout Georgia but the fun all ends at the Georgia state line? I think not.
It appears as though Colorado is getting a better quality of “happy smoke” than Washington is getting.
The lower third of Michigan I can understand, but the upper two thirds? That’s paradise up there. Sheesh.
Louisiana, where the men cook and the women know all about football.
Having lived here 10 and a half years I've noticed when I go up North I find the food rather bland. The McDonalds down here have a spicy McChicken. We were somewhere up north and my son wanted to order one but the Mcdonalds up there did not carry them.
Happiness occurs between the ears and nowhere else.
I wonder why there are two stripes of happiness, Montana to Arizona and Texas to South Carolina. There does not seem to be much alignment with other demographic maps that I have seen.
Hahaha I knew before even looking that my home state Indiana would be low - Hoosier goth rules - we may be eeyoreish and glass half empty but we’re also stubborn and don’t let new issues bother us as much - cause what’s a little more bad when your not getting off the bottom anyhow...Lol
Something about being contented with what you have, maybe? Rural vs. urban also plays a role.
But why is Georgia so happy and Alabama less happy? Why are you happy in Nashville and not so happy in the rest of Tennessee?
Why is Louisiana happy and Arkansas not? And does that last one have anything to do with the Clintons?
Colorado seems like a very very very happy state. And they have the munchies.
I don’t know if they are going to stay all that happy, considering that teen car accidents are way up.
Happiness around my house in Arnold, Maryland. The whole state seems happy!
Yes, Cajun food is excellent, tho somewhat spicy, as you say. The French influence is one of the main reasons I feel it is so good.
One reason the South is happier may be sweet tea..
That is not altogether surprising to me. I used to live near Marin County CA, a bastion of Leftism, a very rich area with plenty of nice restaurants. We would meet the nicest people when we went there.
I'm inclined to think that many Leftists are people who emotionally care about others but fall short of realizing government is not the answer for people but the problem. But personality-wise, they tend to be "people-lovers" (it's hard to understand they're for abortion, but I think they're also in denial).
The Right on the other hand is usually "right" but sometimes I think we're "wrong" about being "right." (ie. uptight and pissed off all the time). Nobody needs that. To me, the Right is "right" because we care about people and want people to be happy and free. It starts with us being happy and free. If we're not, we need to go back to the drawing board because our influence will very limited. If we don't show MORE patience, reliance, and cheer than the other side, they can walk away muttering, "Who needs that, I've got enough problems."
Boyd Crowder?
What’s up with Kentucky?!
..............
I was just in rural Kentucky this past week on vacation. seemed like everyone was so fat they could hardly stand.
I expect that means the hospitals there are overcrowded with lifestyle related illnesses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.