(Prologue) - In a study released this week by Gallup, Hickory is rated as having the 6th Saddest Population in the United States. This was reported by CBS MoneyWatch in an article authored by Carla Fried. We are defined as being ranked amongst the least contented populaces, in a poll that ranks communities based upon Life Evaluation, Physical Health, Healthy Behavior, Emotions, Work, and Basic Access.
As far as the dynamics of the survey, Life Evaluation is based upon how you feel about your life today and where you see yourself being 5 years from now. Physical health deals with such factors as whether they had any health issues that prevented them from doing any age-appropriate stuff. Healthy Behavior deals with smoking, drinking, working out properly, and eating right. Emotional Questions included such factors as "Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?" Work questions include, "Are you satisfied/dissatisfied with your job?" Basic Access includes Medical-related questions such as had you been to a dentist in the past year, do you have a personal doctor, and/or have health insurance. It also included questions about the general satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the region.
In my opinion, it is easy to see why we are tailor made to rank low in this survey and it goes hand in hand with other surveys that have ranked us low. There are many people here that are living on the edge. How can you be satisfied with your circumstance if you are unemployed or worried about losing your job or if you are worried about losing your business; and how would you feel about your future prospects?
You can look around the community and see all of the people who are overweight and how many people are still practicing bad health habits. You also have to factor in the aging populace of our area and realize that the aged are going to have more than their fair share of health related issues. The Emotion issue ties in directly with the stress level and as I stated their are a lot of people in this community living on the edge. Worried about their job... Worried about losing their house... Worried about the escalating cost of living... People realizing that help isn't coming soon and lowering their expectations to survival mode.
Basic Access is something that many people don't have in this community. It is a function of opportunity. As I have stated time and time again, look at the income levels in this area. Yes our cost of living is lower in comparison to some larger areas, but that is a direct correlation of the cost of labor function, which is the number one cost of most businesses and which has been suppressed in our area for generations. There are also issues of accessibility related to connectivity. And lets be frank, we haven't done very well in making connections and working well with other fellow communities in our region.
We can change all of this by shunning those who will not work well with others. Everyone has the ability to contribute, but you can lead a horse to the recognition that they have a role to play, but you can't force them to play that role. These people will be offered their opportunity to participate, but we are out of time when it comes to begging people to join this process and help turn this community around. You are either in or you are out and those that are in are going to move forward and those that are out Bye-Bye!!!
The 10 Happiest (and Saddest) Cities in the U.S. - By Carla Fried - Mar 17, 2011
Bigger isn’t necessarily best when it comes to quality of life. In a Gallup survey released this week of the U.S. cities rated highest for overall well-being, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago all failed to crack the top 50. By contrast, nine of the top 10 spots in the survey went to mid-size cities, with the Boulder, Colorado metro area grabbing the top overall spot. The only big city that cracked the top 10 was the Washington, D.C. area.
Where to get your happy on:
The 10 Happiest Cities (Overall Ranking)
1. Boulder, CO
2. Lincoln, NE
3. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
4. Provo-Orem, UT
5. Honolulu, HI
6. Madison, WI
7. Cedar Rapids, IA
8. Gainesville, FL
9. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
10. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
At the other end of the spectrum, among the 188 metropolitan areas Gallup focused on, these regions turned up the least-contented residents:
The 10 Saddest Cities in America
179. Utica-Rome, NY
180. Prescott, AZ
181. Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
182. Spartanburg, SC
183. Hickory-Lenoir- Morganton, NC
184. Fort Smith, AR-OK
185. Redding, CA
186. Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
187. Youngstown-Warren- Boardman, OH-PA
188. Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
