A recent study from the U.S.'s National Bureau of Economic Research colors a map of the United States in shades of orange, blue, and yellow. The colors make a patchwork of the country, representing people's self-reported levels of happiness. Even when controlled for income (ensure that rich regions, assumed to be happier, don't skew the data too much), it is obvious that, well, some parts of America feel happier than others.

But the map—which has many large metropolitan areas like New York City reporting low levels of happiness is about more than just how people feel. Vox comments: "The data also carries in it an insight into how people make major life choices. If people only sought to live in happy places, cities like Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia would be swamped with people, while New York would be desolate. Clearly, that hasn't happened.

[The study's researchers write], 'One interpretation of these facts is that individuals do not aim to maximize self-reported well-being, or happiness, as measured in surveys, and they willingly endure less happiness in exchange for higher incomes or lower housing costs.'"

Possible Preaching Angle:

The bottom line? People around the country are willing to trade their happiness for money—willing to live in a place where they are unhappy in exchange for a shot at a thicker paycheck or a thinner mortgage payment. What does that say about our priorities? Where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. But not necessarily our happiness.