Quality of life not set by magazines

The question: “Who would want to live here?”, in the 6/21/2013 issue, is followed by a suggestion that “all the negativity” is kept in perspective by considering other things. Furthermore, you maintain that “Suburban quality of life [is] still healthy.” However, you never give reasons that I would consider attractive for a potential resident.

I agree that there is great negativity about life in Illinois, in general, and Arlington Heights, in particular; all the things you cite speak to that. But maintaining that suburban quality of life, in Illinois, is better because of newspaper and magazine polls extolling the locales is hardly a legitimate reason to verify a healthy quality of life.

One might legitimately question the polls from the view of statistical manipulations of data, small samples, etc. Then there is the suspicion that unnamed “national magazines” might be less than objective in their frequent “Top 10” lists of everything from suburbs to pizza sauce. Praising DuPage County by U.S. News and World Report can never be considered a verbal pat on the back. The magazine is hardly a factual source for very much of anything, and certainly not an arbiter of “healthiness” (sic.).

A quick scan of the world’s news media would show that most of them routinely publish poll results that agree with their editorial outlook. Every European medium runs, almost daily, top-10, or top-50 lists of many things. China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Russia, all the Balkan countries tout their virtues in maniacal attempts to lure tourist dollars. In the same issues, we also read of the atrocious pollution of Asia, the rude behavior of Balkan countries, and the unemployment rates that threaten the economist’s sanity. The message is that we cannot rely on polls in the news media.

Living in numerous places about the globe would clearly show that every locale has most of the same problems as Illinois, Arlington Heights, etc. Quality of life is usually a matter of family strength, and personal morality and philosophy. We are enmeshed in a progressive socialism that threatens to ruin what quality may be left, as it did in the European revolutions of the 1840s, the Russian debacle of 1917-18, the continual Chinese Revolution that is now in its third century. When we learn to depend on ourselves, and not the government, for our needs, we may actually observe a healthier life quality. Of course, much depends on what we mean by “healthier”, “quality”, etc.

Joseph Haggin

Arlington Heights