The essence of strategy is making limiting choices. Are we making the right ones? http://www.newgeography.com/content/004188-oregons-sad-focus-happiness
Really interesting. One thing I notice is that those who want to create "happiness" at the expense of people being able to live aside from poverty and/or the government tit all have money and position in society. In other words, I shall glory in my riches and watch you be happy in your poverty.
More specifically, it seems to me that the united states is choking itself as a family by subsidizing all across the country state by state. It's an arms race to see who can spend tax dollars on companies to create jobs.
Gross National Happiness http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/04/bhutan_happiness_measure_spell.html The governor and First Lady Cylvia Hayes are scheduled to leave today to attend a conference in Bhutan that focuses on a concept known as Gross National Happiness -- an alternative theory to Gross Domestic Product that seeks to measure economic progress in alternative ways. ...topics of the conference include methods that governments are using to measure growth and sustainability and the links among education, health, rural development and economic development. Doesn't seem terrible.
What does The Oregonian know about Oregon? I get all of my Oregon news from The Orange County Register!
I don't know the leadership of this state deserves as much credit for the direction the writer thinks they are taking this state. It seems to me if quality of life is the goal, the state government would get the fuck out of the way.
A recruiter for Nike tried to get me to go work for them in Portland. Not making shoes or apparel, but working at their high tech digital media and product campus. The guy sent me several YouTube videos to watch, and it sure looked comparable to a campus like Yahoo! or some of the other good sized Silicon Valley companies. Seattle has been blessed with Microsoft and Nintendo for decades. When people quit those companies, the area was good for new startups. Amazon is a huge tech company in the area that's much younger but is Nintendo a big deal anymore? There's Starbucks, but I wouldn't call them a high tech Silicon Valley style company. Who else is there?
Step 1. Check who author is. Bottom of article says he writes editorials in conservative Orange County, and won some award from the local private diploma mill, Chapman College, whose standards are bottom of the barrel but churns out graduates like a factory. Step 2. Read first sentence. "Oregon is a beautiful place, and, for many of the state's well-heeled residents, including many refugees from equally beautiful but overpriced California, economic growth not only is unimportant but is even a negative." Step 3. In a remote untravelled part of my brain, picture smoggy Los Angeles as equally beautiful as green Oregon. Don't Californize Oregon. Step 4. Click an adjacent part of my brain. Scientific name in Latin is Articlebegone.
I lived in the SF Bay area during the big earthquake in 1989. There was a mass exodus of people afraid of a really big one that scientists assure us is all coming. To Oregon. At one point there was such a glut in available real estate that home values dropped maybe 20% or more. So yeah, there are a lot of refugees there. Just not from LA.
...and now I understand how we have the government we do. We get the government we deserve. Did it ever occur to you that happiness is our own responsibility and not the responsibility of government? Or do you just want your Soma?
You sure gleaned a lot from my comment. I am indeed responsible for my own happiness. But what is it about "growth and sustainability and the links among education, health, rural development and economic development" that you have a problem with? That's what the Gross National happiness conference was about. Does that seem terrible to you? There is plenty of good info in the article, but the first paragraph was so idiotic and smarmy saying that in Oregon "economic growth is not only is unimportant, but is even a negative" then adding "Forget sweating the hard stuff, and cozy up with a hot soy latte." I have to admit that "Gross National Happiness" sounds like a slogan on a bumper sticker that one might impulse buy while shopping for incense. Anyway peace dude.
Well to me, your article wanted to change Oregon's land use to be closer to a Denver or a Phoenix. Did I take away the wrong message?