The journal Science in November
2009 published a research article on happiness, attempting to rank its
prevalence by state. Supposedly, this research compared what people said
against objective measures “known” to affect happiness (weather, population
density, air quality, home prices, etc.). You'll be happy to know that Louisiana was the number 1 happy state and New York was number 51 (the survey included the District of Columbia ).
My own home states, Maine and Massachusetts , checked
in at number 10 and number 43, respectively. Eight of the top ten were
warm-weather states.
This study contrasts with a
happiness survey taken by Gallup
in the same month that relied only on what people said. Here the happiest
states were the wealthiest and the most tolerant, with Utah
first and West Virginia
last. Massachusetts was 8th and Maine 29th. Even taking
into account people's ability to lie, especially to themselves, these data seem
more representative.
May I say first that if we believe
that happiness can be measured objectively by weather and house prices, such as
Science claims, we should change our species name to Homo superficialis. (Also,
Derek Bok in his book The Politics of Happiness, says that high GDP is no
predictor of happiness.)
Second, by the objective measures, Maine is a great place
to live, but the people don’t think so. I wonder if the surveys corrected for
the two Maines, the splits between coastal Maine (Kittery to Acadia but not
past Acadia, for “way Down East” is as poor as any inland hamlet) and the rest
of the state, between natives and summer people, between north and south,
between poor and well-off. A state of
mind can be so much more pleasant than a state of body.
At present there seems to be a reasonable truce
between the various “twos,” but I doubt there’s much commerce among them except
in the money sense. The tourist industry is still
Excerpted from Saving
Maine: A Personal Gazetteer
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