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Red
18 Dec 2009, 10:52am
http://www.livescience.com/culture/091217-happy-state-list.html

1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
11. Alaska
12. North Carolina
13. Wyoming
14. Idaho
15. South Dakota
16. Texas
17. Arkansas
18. Vermont
19. Georgia
20. Oklahoma
21. Colorado
22. Delaware
23. Utah
24. New Mexico
25. North Dakota
26. Minnesota
27. New Hampshire
28. Virginia
29. Wisconsin
30. Oregon
31. Iowa
32. Kansas
33. Nebraska
34. West Virginia
35. Kentucky
36. Washington
37. District of Columbia
38. Missouri
39. Nevada
40. Maryland
41. Pennsylvania
42. Rhode Island
43. Massachusetts
44. Ohio
45. Illinois
46. California
47. Indiana
48. Michigan
49. New Jersey
50. Connecticut
51. New York

I took the time (yes slow work day) to indicate red vs blue states as determined by the average margins of victory in the last five presidential elections (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states#Red_States). I also underlined and bolded states with the top 15 highest State and Local Tax Burdens (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/pf/0704/gallery.tax_friendliest/8.html) as per 2007. Should make for interesting theories/debate given the trend for red states and lower taxed states to be up top. With the exception of Hawaii and Florida (warm weather yay).

Dracula
18 Dec 2009, 10:55am
Saw this on the news today, though I debate Florida as being a blue state I figure it as more of a swing state otherwise nice.

Red
18 Dec 2009, 10:56am
It's a "Purple" state. But I just went off the +/- percentages and put them in blue or red.

Prez
18 Dec 2009, 12:33pm
All I can say is that I'm not surprised that New York is last place.

Hazmat
18 Dec 2009, 12:33pm
Wisconsin is number 29...
I hate this state.

Drox
18 Dec 2009, 12:39pm
North Carolina is also a purple state, the votes were as close here as they were in Florida during the election. So Obama barely won North Carolina lol

Desum
18 Dec 2009, 01:01pm
xD I saw this on Fox today, it was apparently based on the amount of sunshine each state got.

TheTruth
18 Dec 2009, 01:02pm
Hai numbur 43.

Cromyth
18 Dec 2009, 01:32pm
Lol number 51.

Upstate NY and the mountains aren't bad.

b0red
18 Dec 2009, 01:39pm
Why is maryland so low? Its known as little America, its a great state with so much to offer.

Hamster power
18 Dec 2009, 02:00pm
Dam. 46. i'm happy living in Cali. <3

Ganzta
18 Dec 2009, 02:14pm
How's Louisiana #1? It's bound to be overrun by a zombie apocalypse.
Anyway, Texas #16 woot!

Bilbo Baggins
18 Dec 2009, 02:33pm
WOOT 10!
Point of interest, determining political leanings via presidential results might be a little misleading, at least with Maine (used to at least). Here we have a Democratic Governor, yet we have two republican senators who I doubt we're ever going to get rid of (I'm liberally leaning, if thats not apparent)

Italian Jew
18 Dec 2009, 02:39pm
Smaller populations (minus a few exceptions) at the top versus more heavily populated states (also minus a few exceptions).


The results are based on an examination of two data sets, one that included personal reports of happiness for 1.3 million Americans and the other that included objective measures, such as how crowded that state is, air quality, home prices and other factors known to impact quality of life.

As you can tell, you can see why the states at the bottom (mostly more populated states) would lack in areas people in the "wide open" states enjoy freely. I'd say politics has little or nothing to do with it beyond the fact that typically larger and more dense populations benefit more from a democratic basis whereas other, smaller and less dense populations benefit more from a republican basis.

If you could breakdown the data, you would see people being happier away from large cities. States with more large cities would be "unhappier" than states with few of them.

The political standpoint of each state or district really has no correlation to its happiness. The "happiness" would result from the other factors listed in the poll just as the political leaning would seem to be derived from similar factors (density, general quality of life, etc.). Yay for coincidences and incorrect correlations in polls throughout time. :high5:

Ms. Blargh
18 Dec 2009, 02:57pm
Woot 1 and 3!

Caution
18 Dec 2009, 02:58pm
I am really surprised California isn't lower on that list.

Italian Jew
18 Dec 2009, 03:01pm
I am really surprised California isn't lower on that list.

Earthquakes and forest fires > living in New York


The truth hurts.

Caution
18 Dec 2009, 03:07pm
Earthquakes and forest fires > living in New York


The truth hurts.

Haha I wasn't even thinking about that, where I live we don't get any earthquakes, and hardly ever any forest fires. I was just thinking because of how fucking broke we are, people would be a lot less happy.

Voltage
18 Dec 2009, 03:12pm
All I can say is that I'm not surprised that New York is last place.

I expected the same thing for New Jersey, as It's one of the most taxed states in the U.S, and no one likes taxes.

Red
18 Dec 2009, 03:35pm
Why is maryland so low? Its known as little America, its a great state with so much to offer.

Because the drivers suck fucking ass and we can dvda'd by retardedly high taxes, traffic cameras, way too many highway cops more concerned with enforcing the retarded 55mph fucking speed limits rather than fighting growing gang violence and the ever increasing illegal immigrant population which is pandered to by the liberal as fuck state government and we're not allowed to fucking carry a gun unless our lives have been threatened, which is ass backwards run on sentence

Italian Jew
18 Dec 2009, 04:12pm
Because the drivers suck fucking ass

Anyone who has driven through Maryland for any amount of time can agree that Marylanders(?) are the WORST FUCKING DRIVERS EVARRR!!!!!!!!

Whenever I go up to PA to get good fireworks, I almost convince myself to driver around the damn state. Instead, I hope to only run into slightly retarded drivers.

Lux
18 Dec 2009, 06:25pm
Louisiana is the happiest?? Would've thought the hurricanes, ruining off homes etc would make people a bit unhappy :blink:

Also......people go to cities like New York for jobs....and obviously high paid jobs makes people happier than being a gas station worker in the middle of nowhere......right?

Kamakazii101
18 Dec 2009, 07:56pm
Oh ffs why is Michigan 48th ;_; (figures that Florida's in the top 5)

Italian Jew
18 Dec 2009, 09:36pm
Also......people go to cities like New York for jobs....and obviously high paid jobs makes people happier than being a gas station worker in the middle of nowhere......right?

That's not how the survey was conducted. They generated the results from what they considered a "statistically created american" that was somewhere in the middle.


Rather, Oswald and Stephen Wu, an economist at Hamilton College in New York, statistically created a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.

"Not much point in looking at the happiness of a Texas rancher compared to a nurse in Ohio," Oswald said.

Read throughout the article and the links the article provides to get the gist of what they were doing in more detail.

NIKO
18 Dec 2009, 09:46pm
LOL im in blold, blue underlined and the 42 happest state haha

mNote
18 Dec 2009, 10:01pm
Louisiana has one of the highest crime rates around and is probably #1 in happiness because nobody gives a shit about law there.

My mother's store is still being attacked by burglars every couple of nights. Cameras can't catch shit that hides in the dark.

Slavic
18 Dec 2009, 10:08pm
http://www.livescience.com/culture/091110-fifty-happy-states.html#comments

lol wat?

Written by the same author aswell. Lots of differences between the two.

Caution
18 Dec 2009, 10:35pm
...

How credible is this survey lol?

Italian Jew
18 Dec 2009, 10:39pm
http://www.livescience.com/culture/091110-fifty-happy-states.html#comments

lol wat?

Written by the same author as well. Lots of differences between the two.

I think that was the survey the guy mentioned in the new article that didn't provide "meaningful results" because of the methods they used.


Can't take statistics in surveys such as this or the other one too seriously though as the practice is very iffy when there is an abundance of subjectivity in the results. You switch up what kind of data is collected (+ how it is collected) and the results can be completely different.


Moral of the story, statistics tend to be messy.

:-]
19 Dec 2009, 12:32am
#5. I'm a bit surprised we're up that high o_o

Hamster power
19 Dec 2009, 01:05am
;336377']#5. I'm a bit surprised we're up that high o_o

seriously. arizona isn't that great. especially when compared to california.:toung:

Killer
19 Dec 2009, 02:37am
texas #16 Arizona #5 LOLWUT how?

Killer
19 Dec 2009, 02:39am
texas #16 and Arizona #5 LOLWUT how?

P.S sorry for double post i dunno what happened =( delete the one above please =)

Simon [I R JAWZ]
19 Dec 2009, 06:28am
Hawaii should be #1, it's the best place on earth, hard to reach for zombzorz :O

Italian Jew
19 Dec 2009, 10:28am
;336461']Hawaii should be #1, it's the best place on earth, hard to reach for zombzorz :O

Unless the zombzors begin the outbreak on Hawaii. Whatever island it starts on....LOL!

trakaill
20 Dec 2009, 09:24am
Unless the zombzors begin the outbreak on Hawaii. Whatever island it starts on....LOL!

That would be awesome...We could all just laugh at them and now the zombies wouldnt be able to get out of the island!

But really someone is wondering why Michigan is so low? Ive never been there but hell when ever I watch detective shows on TV Michigan always comes up..isnt detroit the city with the highest crime rate in the US? And its cold as fuck.... -30 degrees doesnt make people happy!!

skitzophranic
20 Dec 2009, 09:39am
#28? not bad but i would have expected it to be lower like 17 or somethin its a nice state :p

Flash_whAt.?
20 Dec 2009, 05:03pm
haha nice red.. but living in NJ i say that you must be a hard person to live here.. you need a rough skin because people are constantly disrespecting each other. SO HENCE NY,NJ and CT is the last 3 states

Jewpiter
20 Dec 2009, 08:16pm
Figures im from NY...

Bad Dog
20 Dec 2009, 09:59pm
What was the point of saying U.S States?

trakaill
20 Dec 2009, 10:39pm
What was the point of saying U.S States?

cause if you are in second place doesnt mean your unhappy..just means your not as happy as first one

Red
21 Dec 2009, 08:50am
What was the point of saying U.S States?

Because it's about states in the US, thought that was pretty evident.

Jazz
21 Dec 2009, 11:26am
"The lights will inspire you"

Pff?

Ares018
21 Dec 2009, 04:46pm
# 45!!! lol

Ramb0
27 Dec 2009, 10:38pm
I can't believe Florida is that high, most people are rude as hell here at least in South Florida.

Sexy Fish
27 Dec 2009, 10:52pm
TN...that high..I am fucking bored as hell here...gah..

Billy
28 Dec 2009, 10:59am
Dam. 46. i'm happy living in Cali. <3
Ya I live in Malibu right now and I'm liking it here. Must be those ghetto guys from Watts.

engaged
28 Dec 2009, 06:12pm
michigan 48?? ROFL. i believe that..

Thefreshprince
29 Dec 2009, 04:27am
3. Florida

Ofcourse, with all the warm weather, hot babes, old people, and shitty drivers we have a great time :-].

Morningafter
29 Dec 2009, 10:28am
Hah! i knew us ny'rs would be low on that...but LAST......lmao i love it!