SIGNS OF THE TIMES
New Yorkers are unhappy, it seems. In an article from today’s New York Times entitled “New York Ranks Last in Happiness Rating,” Clyde Haberman reports on an article published last week Science magazine by two economists, Andrew J. Oswald (University of Warwick, UK) and Stephen Wu (Hamilton College). Why are economists publishing in Science? Accoding to the article’s abstract, Oswald and Wu’s study “has some potential to help to unify disciplines” because it brings together subjective and “nonsubjective” data.
Oswald and Wu’s article is called “Objective Confirmation of Subjective Measures of Human Well-Being: Evidence from the U.S.A.,” and it brings together data collected in two separate studies. One was Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2005-2008 in which a random sample of 1.3 million United States citizens in which life-satisfaction in each U.S. state was measured. This data was merged with data published in 2003 by UCLA researcher Stuart Gabriel that considered various indicators from for each state, such as precipitation; temperature; wind speed; sunshine; coastal land; inland water; public land; National Parks; hazardous waste sites; environmental
I. Love. The. Third. Man. But then again, this fact is predictable considering I have made myself a set of Russian nesting dolls, the largest of which is Pookles himself (Pookles is Orson’s childhood nickname).
And, yes, I buy the Harry Lime school thing.
Send us a picture of the dolls!
A couple thoughts: 1) this is NY state rather than the city. (Sorry, Andrea, but maybe it’s the upstaters who are so miserable!) 2) “various indicators from for each state, such as precipitation; temperature; wind speed; sunshine; coastal land; inland water; public land; National Parks; hazardous waste sites; environmental
Sent!
Bryan, there may be something to what you’re saying about upstaters. I know that Albany has been historically known as a depressing place to live, what with all the concrete architecture and its refusal to committ to being either contemporary and historic. In William Kennedy’s “O, Albany!” it starts with a quote from a journal of someone long ago who pretty much says, “Of all the miserable one horse towns, I had to be stuck in Albany!”
Hopefully I can rise above for the next year! Maybe I’ll be back in the Big City sooner than we all thought…but not before my lease runs out.
I can think of ten reasons people in New York are unhappy: cost of rent, cost of food, impersonal quality of the city, no-talking-to-neighbors-rule, subways don’t run on time, buses don’t run at all, movies cost $13 (hey, there’s actually an upside to being an NYU student – Ticket Central!), windows facing other buildings, windows facing other buildings that don’t have any plants in their windows, and the grey slush that permeates every inch of your shoes when the cabs hit the streets after a snowstorm.
Bitter? Me? Maybe. A little. I still won’t ever leave.
[Andrea: you should come back. Soon. Urgently, if at all possible. Does anyone even notice if you renege on a lease in Albany?]