ElleGee
12-26-2009, 09:41 PM
anything in italics is my commentary
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 27, 2009
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — OK, it’s official: Rhode Islanders are among the most miserable people in the country. HA! me being an ahole is not my fault :) j/k
A recent report published in the elite journal Sci
ence confirmed what many of us in the Ocean State have known for years: Rhode Islanders are crabby. They like to complain — a lot. They take a perverse pleasure in being the smallest — and arguably one of the most corrupt states — in the union. I was/am a big Buddy Cianci supporter even though he went to jail for racketeering and tried to have his ex wife's lover effed up
Local musician and storyteller Bill Harley sums it up in his song, “The Size of the State of Rhode Island,” which he said should be our unofficial state song. With permission from Harley, it starts:
“Rhode Island’s the size of a spreading oil spill
Off of the coast of Bahia
Rhode Island’s the size of a giant landfill
Somewhere in the Crimea…”
Linda Lotridge Levin, who has lived here more than 30 years, said she has always found Rhode Island to be somewhat unpleasant and sometimes, downright hostile. Levin, who chairs the University of Rhode Island’s journalism department, also thinks that the closer you get to Providence, the crankier people become. I live exactly 1.02 miles from the center of our city
“Size is important,” she said. “We have an inferiority complex. We are always being compared to something. We think of our smallness as a negative.” this is total bs by the way. I have had family here for 104 years. Most of us think our smallness is a positive because it takes a shorter amount of time to do things in larger cities and everyone knows everyone here so getting things done if you know people takes even a faster amount of time like construction, inspections, permits and such. Inferior? No. Small townish in a small state? Yep
But two of our more affluent neighbors, Massachusetts and Connecticut, rate even lower on the happiness scale than we do, and New York ranks dead last, which prompted New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman to posit that contentment is overrated. we are miserable but not kicking puppy miserable
In the study, two economics professors compared data from a survey of more than 1.3 million Americans by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which asked participants how satisfied they were with their lives. Those findings were compared with “objective indicators” borrowed from research at the University of California Los Angeles. What they found is that Americans’ subjective feelings correlated closely with the so-called objective measurements, which looked at commuting time, crime, taxes, air quality, local spending on education, cost of living and other factors.
What the study can’t explain, however, is why Louisiana ranked number one (Katrina, anyone?) and several of the poorest states — Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama — made the Top Ten.
“We have been asked a lot whether we expected states like New York and California would do so badly in the happiness ranking,” said one of the professors, Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, in England. “The problem is, if too many individual people think these states would be marvelous places to live in, they move … and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy.”
Rhode Islanders have ample reason to be depressed. We have the second-highest unemployment rate, 12.7 percent, in the nation, second only to Michigan’s. The state shed 1,300 jobs last month and it has the lowest employment rate in 11 years.
“In terms of some of the social issues, we are clearly near the bottom,” said Henry Shelton, a community activist who runs the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket. “That’s reflected in peoples’ attitudes. The people in power are unwilling to be creative. That makes people discouraged.”
Because of its size, Rhode Islanders tend to be very tribal, to stick with their own, according to Bill Shuey, director of the International Institute of Rhode Island, a refugee resettlement agency. this is very true.. We do have a 'pack' mentality even though we know our fellow pack member is wrong in 70 different ways. But what ever, we don't care
“But I’m a happy guy,” Shuey said. “I’m amazed at the resilience of the human spirit, the way people can bounce back from things that would kill me. That’s one of the benefits of my work. People appreciate being here. They don’t complain.”
Author and activist Richard J. Walton thinks that Rhode Islanders take a certain pride in their misery. nod
“We like being special,” he said. “We’re kind of proud of the fact that there is so much corruption in our state. Thirty-six school districts in a state our size. We get a perverse amusement out of that. But I think it’s a wonderful place to live. I like its smallness. I like that the highest point in our state — Jerimoth Hill — is only 812 feet high.”
Rhode Island is like the little brother who pulls your hair and breaks your toys, then turns around and gives you the biggest hug in the world. There is so much to love: the treasure-trove of historic buildings, the wealth of good restaurants, a thriving arts community and the beaches, the beaches, the beaches.
Not everyone buys the professors’ findings, however:
“Sometimes, academics do studies that are flawed and irrelevant,” said Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island. “This may be one of them.”
[email protected]
http://www.projo.com/news/content/RI_happiness_reaction_12-27-09_1JGTG7C_v19.30f3508.html
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Despite all of this I do love living here.. :)
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 27, 2009
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — OK, it’s official: Rhode Islanders are among the most miserable people in the country. HA! me being an ahole is not my fault :) j/k
A recent report published in the elite journal Sci
ence confirmed what many of us in the Ocean State have known for years: Rhode Islanders are crabby. They like to complain — a lot. They take a perverse pleasure in being the smallest — and arguably one of the most corrupt states — in the union. I was/am a big Buddy Cianci supporter even though he went to jail for racketeering and tried to have his ex wife's lover effed up
Local musician and storyteller Bill Harley sums it up in his song, “The Size of the State of Rhode Island,” which he said should be our unofficial state song. With permission from Harley, it starts:
“Rhode Island’s the size of a spreading oil spill
Off of the coast of Bahia
Rhode Island’s the size of a giant landfill
Somewhere in the Crimea…”
Linda Lotridge Levin, who has lived here more than 30 years, said she has always found Rhode Island to be somewhat unpleasant and sometimes, downright hostile. Levin, who chairs the University of Rhode Island’s journalism department, also thinks that the closer you get to Providence, the crankier people become. I live exactly 1.02 miles from the center of our city
“Size is important,” she said. “We have an inferiority complex. We are always being compared to something. We think of our smallness as a negative.” this is total bs by the way. I have had family here for 104 years. Most of us think our smallness is a positive because it takes a shorter amount of time to do things in larger cities and everyone knows everyone here so getting things done if you know people takes even a faster amount of time like construction, inspections, permits and such. Inferior? No. Small townish in a small state? Yep
But two of our more affluent neighbors, Massachusetts and Connecticut, rate even lower on the happiness scale than we do, and New York ranks dead last, which prompted New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman to posit that contentment is overrated. we are miserable but not kicking puppy miserable
In the study, two economics professors compared data from a survey of more than 1.3 million Americans by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which asked participants how satisfied they were with their lives. Those findings were compared with “objective indicators” borrowed from research at the University of California Los Angeles. What they found is that Americans’ subjective feelings correlated closely with the so-called objective measurements, which looked at commuting time, crime, taxes, air quality, local spending on education, cost of living and other factors.
What the study can’t explain, however, is why Louisiana ranked number one (Katrina, anyone?) and several of the poorest states — Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama — made the Top Ten.
“We have been asked a lot whether we expected states like New York and California would do so badly in the happiness ranking,” said one of the professors, Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, in England. “The problem is, if too many individual people think these states would be marvelous places to live in, they move … and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy.”
Rhode Islanders have ample reason to be depressed. We have the second-highest unemployment rate, 12.7 percent, in the nation, second only to Michigan’s. The state shed 1,300 jobs last month and it has the lowest employment rate in 11 years.
“In terms of some of the social issues, we are clearly near the bottom,” said Henry Shelton, a community activist who runs the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket. “That’s reflected in peoples’ attitudes. The people in power are unwilling to be creative. That makes people discouraged.”
Because of its size, Rhode Islanders tend to be very tribal, to stick with their own, according to Bill Shuey, director of the International Institute of Rhode Island, a refugee resettlement agency. this is very true.. We do have a 'pack' mentality even though we know our fellow pack member is wrong in 70 different ways. But what ever, we don't care
“But I’m a happy guy,” Shuey said. “I’m amazed at the resilience of the human spirit, the way people can bounce back from things that would kill me. That’s one of the benefits of my work. People appreciate being here. They don’t complain.”
Author and activist Richard J. Walton thinks that Rhode Islanders take a certain pride in their misery. nod
“We like being special,” he said. “We’re kind of proud of the fact that there is so much corruption in our state. Thirty-six school districts in a state our size. We get a perverse amusement out of that. But I think it’s a wonderful place to live. I like its smallness. I like that the highest point in our state — Jerimoth Hill — is only 812 feet high.”
Rhode Island is like the little brother who pulls your hair and breaks your toys, then turns around and gives you the biggest hug in the world. There is so much to love: the treasure-trove of historic buildings, the wealth of good restaurants, a thriving arts community and the beaches, the beaches, the beaches.
Not everyone buys the professors’ findings, however:
“Sometimes, academics do studies that are flawed and irrelevant,” said Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island. “This may be one of them.”
[email protected]
http://www.projo.com/news/content/RI_happiness_reaction_12-27-09_1JGTG7C_v19.30f3508.html
-------------------------------------------------------
Despite all of this I do love living here.. :)