Happy States

America's Happiest States;
1 Louisiana
2 Hawaii
3 Florida
4 Tennessee
5 Arizona
6 Mississippi
7 Montana
8 South Carolina
9 Alabama
10 Maine

What's odd about this list is the number of "Poor" states included.
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Hawaii also score fairly low in most literacy ratings.
But how can this be so?
How can poor and under-educated people be so happy?
Don't these people watch MTV Cribs, My Super Sweet Sixteen, or any of the Real Housewives shows?
Are these people too dumb to know that they are dumb and poor?


Or maybe they have a different measure of what it is to be "Poor".
Residents of Hawaii have an identity. These residents know that they are Hawaiian.
The same could be said of the Cajun and Creole cultures of Louisiana.
While differing from most popular American ideas of "Rich" - these people seem to recognize what Popeye the Sailor Man had realized a half century earlier ("I y'am what I y'am.").

The list stuck me as interesting because the Top Ten does not include;
Texas - Maybe suffering from a Jan Brady (second place) complex?
California - Has it become too big and successful and focused on itself for it's own good?
New York - Was wealth not all that it was cracked up to be?
Utah - Does piety have it's limits?

Were the Native Americans more or less happy before the Europeans arrived?
Did Africa have more or less turmoil before the Europeans arrived?
Was Australia better off before England dropped off all it's prisoners?
What I'm asking is; Is it really better to have everyone thinking and acting the same way, or are we better off just being ourselves?