Nine people interviewed said they were “very satisfied” with their lives. Six said “satisfied,” four “dissatisfied.”
Those admittedly unscientific results happen to line up with a study published last month in journal Science. The study found that differences in happiness exist among the states, and what people say about their happiness is significantly correlated with objective quality of life indicators such as weather, employment and other living conditions.
The study worked with more than 1.2 million surveys on life satisfaction conducted from 2005 through 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as quality of life indicators compiled in a 2003 study from UCLA.
“We wanted to study whether people’s feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality — of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc. — in their own state,” said Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at the United Kingdom’s University of Warwick and principal author of the study. “And they do match. When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, you should pay attention.”
Americans, it seems, are pretty satisfied with their lives.
The CDC question asks: “In general, how satisfied are you with your life?” Answers of very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied and very dissatisfied were given values of 4 through 1. The average answer for Americans was 3.4, just under halfway between satisfied and very satisfied.
Meanwhile, the average of responses from the Daily News’ 19 interviews was 3.26.
The fault line: employment. All those who said they were dissatisfied were out of work.
“It’s been real hard,” said 28-year-old Foster Murphy of Dayton as he waited in the snow for a bus at the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority’s main hub downtown. “I’ve got my family to take care of, and I can’t even work. A lot of people that I’m in close contact with are in the same place as me.”
Murphy, who’s been out of work for a year, is studying to be an emergency medical technician at Sinclair Community College.
“I’m trying to better my education,” he said. “So hopefully I will be satisfied in the near future.”
J. Mike Malone, of Kettering, said he was “a little under satisfied” for some of the same reasons.
“Right now I’ve got kind of a twisted ankle and I’m looking for a job,” Malone, 41, said as he waited for his grandmother in the Town and Country Shopping Center.
Malone said he’s run his own business, Mike’s Electrical, Carpentry and Painting, for close to 11 years, but a combination of the bad economy and usual winter slowdown has hurt.
He looked out the window at the falling snow.
“I’m sure everyone gets a little depressed, especially this time of year when it gets cold.”
Not everyone who is unemployed was dissatisfied.
Nithin Kalvakota, a 30-year-old Centerville native, said he’s satisfied although he lost his Chicago job in strategic marketing and research consulting three months ago. He’s currently spending some time with his parents.
Kalvakota said he realized recently that happiness doesn’t come from striving for material things. He’s thinking about going to graduate school at the University of Chicago.
“I’m trying to serve and live my life in a way that helps people that I care about and the community,” he said. “And with that, I experience much less worry and fear in my life.
Shaikh Aljabouri also is unemployed but satisfied with life.
The 35-year-old Iraqi refugee has been in the country three years, and feels “safe and very comfortable.”
“I have a lot of friends here (in Dayton), Aljabouri said. “I have a new life.”
He grew up in a small village in northern Iraq that he said became dangerous after the war began. As the oldest son, Aljabouri had to leave Iraq to try to find work and help support his five sisters and three brothers back home.
He had a job as an electrical technician for a small Kettering company but said he was laid off and is looking for work.
“Ohio is a nice state,” he said, “but we still need more opportunities for a job. That’s what everybody needs. Now it’s my home, new home, my state. I like it very much.”
Susan Fearday said she’s very satisfied despite recovering from open heart surgery just before Thanksgiving.
“I’ve had a lot of down time just looking at things,” said the Kettering wife and mother of four young children. “And I am loved, you know. It’s OK to suffer. It’s OK to be uncomfortable, because I’m loved. Number one by God, by family. Way more than I knew.”
Members of her church, Fairhaven, have taken care of her “like you wouldn’t believe,” she said. They’ve provided every meal for six weeks, done her laundry and cleaned the house twice a week.
“I don’t know what I would have done without them,” Fearday said. “It would have been really hard.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2393 or kmccall@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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