The Pursuit of Happiness

By Dan Krotz – The Wall Street Journal, along with Forbes and Bloomberg News, have run stories recently on “The Happiest and Unhappiest Places to Live in the United States.”

Not surprisingly, rust belt cities are mostly unhappy towns. But it was a surprise to see towns I’m familiar with, like Springfield, Missouri, and the eastern suburbs of Indianapolis – like the towns of Carmel and Anderson, Indiana – make the list, too. Conversely, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Burlington, Vermont, make the happy lists; that makes me feel, well, happy since I have fond memories of each.

The criteria for “unhappy” and “happy” is the usual stuff: obesity and divorce rates, smoking, education, median age, along with outliers such as church affiliation, gun ownership, use of public libraries, and so on. Summarily, gun owning evangelical Christians who’ve been divorced, smoke, and don’t have library cards live in unhappier places than non-smoking atheists or mainstream church members who use public libraries and manage to get through life unarmed.

To be sure, the science behind these studies is suspect, but since we don’t believe in science anymore, who cares? Anyway, the data describes places and not people: I’m sure there are people in, say, Springfield, who are as happy as pigs in… that stuff pigs are happy in… and there are certainly some Depressives in St. Paul.

Interestingly, Donald Trump ran away with the votes in the unhappy towns, while Mrs. Clinton won the happy towns by similarly high margins. The concluding unscientific postscript is that the new Republican majority is comprised of unhappy people in unhappy places.

Democrats should take heed and be more charitable toward Trump’s supporters. Instead of calling them racists, or stupid, etc., think about them in terms of folks who want to lose weight, or quit smoking, or otherwise improve themselves. When Trump names a guy as Secretary of Treasury who securitized hundreds of thousands of home mortgages and foreclosed on tens of thousands of them, don’t say, “I told you so.” Instead, ask, “How’s that working out for you?” or, “Are you Okay?” and be genuinely interested and sympathetic.

At the very least, let them know they’re in your thoughts and prayers.