Shocker: Nation's Happiest Area is Also One of the Richest

Hey You Rubes, Your Social Betters Are Happier Too

Apparently money brings about the easiest path to having a "happy life". Well, if you combine money with eco-guilt, froo-froo Organic market type places, and a strong employee base of poindexters. It may come as no surprise to you, dear reader, but the part of the country where your neighbor just got evicted for defaulting on a sub-prime mortgage or whipping up a meth lab is not the happiest place in America. Rather, the part of California's Silicon Valley that encompasses Santa Clara, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale has been ranked as the "most content" congressional district in America. From SF Chronicle:

"It is an extraordinary place," she said of the region that boasts of Stanford University, the venture capital bastions of Sand Hill Road, Santa Clara University and the Google headquarters. In a region where her constituents include some of the country's most innovative and successful high tech entrepreneurs, she said, "change is not this year's political promise ... it's a constant requirement and continuing expectation."

It'd be nice if the rank and file at Google, Yahoo, and Apple could actually afford to live in the area. With the median home price in Palo Alto at $1.7M, I imagine that those unhappy malcontents have to commute in from a "less content" congressional district. And Stanford University (annual tuition $36K) is not exactly the model for rags to riches social mobility.

Not sure how this poll was conducted, but examining the recent Stephen Fowler debacle (reality TV where a Bay Area smug type was a complete dickhead to the nice Midwestern lady), I'm having a hard time seeing how material wealth would make you a better person one way or the other.