I heard some disturbing statistics about the state of Nevada the other day on NPR. I decided to do some further research and then compare the quality of life in Massachusetts to that in Nevada. My conclusion: eat it raw Nevada.
Trust for America's Health Report ranked Massachusetts #1 in the nation for its quality of life. That might have something to do with Massachusetts' stupid new health care law (the state fines you several hundred dollars for not having health care), but what works, works. Massachusetts (represented here --> by Patriots' cheerleaders) has the 5th lowest infant mortality rate in the nation, the divorce rate is the second lowest, the number of live births to mothers under 20 is the lowest in the nation, it has the highest literacy rate in the US (according to the Daily Show), it's 48th in the nation in per capita poverty (also according to the Daily Show), it's 3rd in the nation in per capita income ($43,702 average), and 29th most dangerous. I don't know why Massachusetts is so dangerous given the other positive numbers. I guess we just like to occasionally stab people. But then again, who doesn't?
Now let's take a look at Nevada. According to the May 19, 2001 issue of the New York Times:
"Pick almost any index of social well-being, and Nevada ranks at or near the very bottom of the 50 states, though it ranks near the top in personal wealth. Besides having the highest suicide rate (almost twice the national average), Nevada has the highest adult smoking rate and the highest death rate from smoking, the highest percentage of teenagers who are high-school dropouts, the highest teenage pregnancy rate and the highest rate of firearm deaths."Wow! Holy shit! Really? Really. Or how about these numbers: Men's Fitness magazine ranked Las Vegas as the fattest city in the nation for the second consecutive year (the magazine's criteria includes sports participation rates, time spent working out, number of parks, average commute time, television viewing rates and legislative health initiatives). The CQ Press ranks Nevada the most dangerous state in the union (the numbers are based on violent
crime statistics) and the 47th healthiest state (on the same criteria that it ranked Massachusetts #1). All this despite having a lower unemployment rate than Massachusetts (4.1% to 4.8%), and relative to the rest of the nation, a high level of personal wealth (average income is $35,780). That $35,780 number is actually higher than it looks because the cost of living in Nevada (represented here <-- by some drunk idiot who probably caught hepatitis from a prostitute) is so much lower than Massachusetts. Using CNN Money's cost-of-living calculator, you would need to make $48,000 in Massachusetts to have the same standard of living as in Nevada with $40,000. So, things are 20% more expensive in Massachusetts, but average incomes are 25% higher.So, how can we explain these numbers? Las Vegas being the fattest city in America makes sense to me. It's too hot here to sit outside, let alone run. The Strip is the only place in the city you can walk around and food here is much cheaper than in Massachusetts. All that adds up to large asses and saggy man boobs. Although for the heat excuse to make sense, we would have to look at obesity rates for Arizona, which is just as hot. I know that 6 of the 10 fattest cities in America, according to Men's Fitness, are in Texas. So the it's-too-hot-to-do-anything-but-eat-Doritos excuse might be valid. However, I also thought that maybe Las Vegas was so dangerous because so much of it is urban. After all, isn't the state of Nevada just Las Vegas and a giant desert? After looking into that, I found that 68% of the state of Nevada lives in the Las Vegas metro area, which is the exact same percent of Massachusetts that lives in the Boston metro area. So, no help to Las Vegas there. Lastly, Boston, according to this article on the Boston Globe's website, is the highest city in America. The state with the best quality of life is also the nation's pot-smoking capital. I'm not claiming that pot-smoking is causing the high quality of life, but clearly it's not hurting it either. Neither is gay marriage. Just for the record.
I kind of got off topic at the end there, but I think I made my point.
