WalletHub's done it again and I don't know whether to cheer or jeer, grouse or praise their latest survey of our U.S. of A's 50 states' livability rankings. But if you're a typical half-full glass type New Mexican, then that aforementioned survey is definitely not up your callejón and you're probably dusting off your Winchester for some East Coast research company varmint shooting right about now.
Yes, amigos and amigas, the non-partisan financial reporting and research company, 'WalletHub,' located in Washington, D.C., has placed the State of New Mexico dead last in its 2021 findings of Best and Worst States to Live In in 2021. There were five major categories of judging for all states: Affordability, Economy, Education/Health, Quality of Life and Safety, and while New Mexico placed dead last in overall points for livability, it wasn't last in every category: it ranked 25th for 'Affordability', 48th for 'Economy', 47th for 'Education/Health', 28th for 'Quality of Life' and 50th for 'Safety.' In case you're interested in knowing the company New Mexico kept with the bottom 10 states, here they are from 41st to 50th: Alabama (41), Hawaii (42), Oklahoma (43), Nevada (44), Arkansas (45), South Carolina (46), Mississippi (47), Louisiana (48), Alaska (49) and New Mexico (50).
Detractors of such studies and die-hard New Mexico cheerleaders will rise to the occasion and claim that there is a bias against the poor old Land of Enchantment, that our really good points have been ignored by all those snobby East Coasters, but those of us who've lived here awhile are more objective and will be inclined to refrain from coming to the old girl's defense. We know the truth about our fundamentals and no matter how many 'New Mexico True' good news stories about green or red chili, Canyon Road art galleries and our multi-cultural melting pot that emanate from our State's Tourism Department, the reality is that we've been suffering for decades under mediocre if not downright third-rate leadership, a paucity of outside investment, sky-high unemployment in a non-diverse economy with too much dependency on the federal government, massive illiteracy, excruciating poverty, high taxes, poor government services, escalating crime, embarrassingly bad academic achievement rates and a provincialism that, if measured accurately, would be completely off the charts.
And, dear friends, to make matters worse (if that's possible) we keep on making the same old political decisions about which party and which groups lead us while expecting them to produce different more positive results which is, in itself, a testimony to our intractable inability to think and act critically and rationally!
Bottom line is WalletHub needs to do a totally different survey, one that doesn't expect us to admit we are wrong and reassess our decisions and throw off a century or more of stubbornness and tribalism because THAT would not be New Mexican as it would require us to rethink our attitudes (and heaven forbid) might even lead to setting new standards of behavior. While I appreciate the wake-up call, not everybody wants to be number one (or even number 41). Many New Mexicans seem to like things the way they are…unmanageable but painfully predictable.
Stephan Helgesen is a former U.S. diplomat and author of four books on American politics.
His own views on life are located at "the intersection of Charles Krauthammer and Art Buchwald." He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com