
The Happiest Regions in the U.S. - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/the-happiest-regions-in-america/
======
nickthemagicman
This is really interesting. I think I know the answer. I live in Louisiana and
I noticed a majority of residents grew up here, had family that grew up here,
and have kids that are all growing up here and everyone knows each other, all
their kids know each other,and there's very strong community values and
regional pride.

So my theory is that happiness is tied to roots and community more than good
economy, good education, good employment prospects, good future for your kids,
low crime, and all of the other things LA isn't really strong on.

I would like to see the happiness research compared to migration statistics.

~~~
selimthegrim
I left Portland for New Orleans two months ago (I originate from Cleveland)
and I couldn't be happier. Without question there is a more cohesive sense of
community. People get offended in my neighborhood when I walk past them
without saying hello. I barely knew my neighbors in North Portland except when
we were banding together to keep tabs on the local heroin dealer ( and that
was the most I'd spoken to neighbors compared to the three other places I'd
lived in the area) Now only if I could grow royal poinciana here
consistently....

My friends in SF (Noe Valley) don't know their neighbors at all and have no
plans to change that state of affairs. I find this unconscionable.

~~~
onedev
Nextdoor.com is trying to bring back that sense of community that you talk
about. You should give it a go.

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fred_durst
There is bias based on if it is socially acceptable in an area to be unhappy.
There are many places where saying you are unhappy is looked down upon or
causes people to avoid you.

This study also should have controlled for antidepressant usage.

[http://insights.som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/antidep_201...](http://insights.som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/antidep_2012_mdk_0.jpg)
[http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/study-maps-mental-
heal...](http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/study-maps-mental-health-
medication-use-us)

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droopyEyelids
Can anyone explain how these articles, studies, etc, can infer happiness
through people's reports of their own mental states?

It sure seems to me like asking people if they're happy measures what they
consider is a culturally acceptable answer to the question, and nothing else.

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sitkack
Non-paywalled link to paper
[http://www.hks.harvard.edu/inequality/Seminar/Papers/Glaeser...](http://www.hks.harvard.edu/inequality/Seminar/Papers/Glaeser14.pdf)

~~~
micro_cam
Thanks. The between figure 2 (the one shown in the article) and figure 3 which
is the same map controlled for income is interesting. As a Montanan I take it
to mean that we get more happiness for our buck here.

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refurb
Interesting! It would be neat to line-up the map with the red/blue political
map. By first glance it looks like the red states are the happiest.

What is also surprising is that some of the poorer states in the US, LA, GA,
AL are some of the happiest states, while the most wealthy, NY (Long Island),
CA (around LA) are some of the unhappiest.

The declining mid-west cities makes sense to me.

~~~
existencebox
At the risk of falling into the "All heatmaps end up generally being a
reflection of population density heatmap" pitfall, I'd cite the fashionable
argument that education is inversely correlated with happiness, coupled with
reasonably recent census data
[http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer](http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer)
to point out that, with some exceptions, there does seem to be similarities.
If anyone has information that would support or refute this, I'd be curious, a
brief searching didn't turn up anything solid.

~~~
learc83
>I'd cite the fashionable argument that education is inversely correlated with
happiness

That argument doesn't seem to be supported.

The article points out that high school graduates are more satisfied than
dropouts. Also up to a point higher income (correlated with higher education)
leads to higher satisfaction. A quick google search seems to confirm that
education is correlated with life satisfaction [1,2,3].

Furthermore the study mentioned in the article is specifically looking at
location differences. They acknowledge that other factors like "income,
education level, age, and marital status" matter more, but that there even
controlling for those factors there are still differences based on location.

[1] [http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/does-
education-...](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/does-education-
make-you-happy/)

[2] [http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-
finance/articles/2012...](http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-
finance/articles/2012/04/10/why-learning-leads-to-happiness)

[3] [http://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/blogs/main/does-
educat...](http://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/blogs/main/does-education-
lead-to-happiness/)

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vacri
A strange selection of colours for the map. Warm, bright colours represent low
values and sadness. Cold, blue colours represent high values and happiness.
It's the opposite of both heat maps and of semantic colour associations with
emotion.

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darkmighty
Even accepting most of the "equilibrium" premises, the author misses the
temporal trade-off: I suppose a lot of people choose to be unhappy in certain
moments of their lives so they can be more happy in others -- it's not a
greedy, monotonic response that would lead to the mentioned equilibrium.

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disjointrevelry
What is the frequency that they asked the question and did they weigh their
response to heavily? It would be useful if they could count in the variation
of how people perceive their lives. If it is based on just a few responses,
then this graph would just be a snapshot rather than a general trend
indicator.

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aianus
I'm flabbergasted that only ~6% of Americans are unhappy. Don't something like
30% of Americans have a negative net worth? How can you be satisfied with your
life when you literally don't have two pennies to rub together?

~~~
lutusp
That's easy to answer -- people who have money care about money, people who
don't, care about something else, like their immediate family, or fishing, or
reading mystery novels, activities that cost almost nothing.

The people that annoy me are those who say things like, "Joe Smith is _worth_
a million dollars." Implicit in that sentence is the idea that someone who has
no money is worth nothing.

~~~
aianus
How do you spend time with your family, fish, read mystery novels, or do
anything other than study, work, or look for work when you're basically one
step away from homelessness?

~~~
lutusp
The answer is obvious -- all you have is time on your hands, and that time is
easily filled reading mystery novels at the local lending library while
waiting for your welfare check.

> ... when you're basically one step away from homelessness?

American society is so immersed in conventional signs of status that it's
possible to shamelessly define people in terms of what they lack. Homeless.
Jobless. Degree-less. Car-less. People who live in hotels are homeless,
strictly speaking. Many New Yorkers are car-less because there's good public
transport. I lived in New York City for about five years in the 1960s and it
would never have occurred to me that not having a car made me a second-class
person.

In the U.S., the view of rich people as seen by poor people is wildly
distorted -- the rich are jetting around, wrecking their exotic cars, throwing
wild expensive parties. And the view of poor people as seen by rich people is
wildly distorted -- the poor live in cardboard boxes, do drugs, drink cheap
wine, and so forth. Both equally inaccurate.

The 2008 financial crisis had a number of causes, but one of them was a
federal program to get people into houses they actually couldn't afford. The
mortgage meltdown was partly the result of this program that created an
artificial scarcity (and price rise) of real estate and a widespread disregard
of people's inability to pay their mortgages.

My point? Being homeless isn't the worst thing that could happen to someone.

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nikanj
In the US, anyway. I would like to see the effects of the better functioning
society in Canada and the cultural differences in Mexico on the map as well.

~~~
vecinu
> better functioning society in Canada

I would love if you expanded on this point rather than just throwing it out
there. I live in Canada, tell me why my society is better functioning.

