When you think about the richest places in the world, where do you think of? Riyadh, Saudi Arabia? Dubai? New York? Well, according to the latest Canadian edition of the Reader’s Digest, one of the world’s most affluent areas is Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The cover of the magazine says, “THE HAPPINESS INDEX: Canada’s richest city measures quality of life.” The article inside the magazine appears under the title: “Rich, Yes, But Happy?: One of the world’s most affluent communities, the Alberta county of Leduc spent $90,000 to measure its citizens’ feelings of well-being. Was it worth it?” The article states:
“In 2005 Leduc, on the basis of the familiar gross domestic product (GDP) economic yardstick, was named one of the richest regions on Earth. Yet, even as its success was the envy of other communities, some of its residents wondered whether GDP was telling the whole story.”
I was one of those residents the Reader’s Digest interviewed for the article. I’ve lived in Beaumont (in the middle of the county) for over twenty years ― and in the general area for all of my 56 years. I remember when the Leduc county was an ordinary place, filled with ordinary people who saw themselves as ordinary folks. They invested themselves in others instead of “portfolios”. They didn’t mind driving older vehicles or drying their laundry on clothes lines.
“In 2005 Leduc, on the basis of the familiar gross domestic product (GDP) economic yardstick, was named one of the richest regions on Earth. Yet, even as its success was the envy of other communities, some of its residents wondered whether GDP was telling the whole story.”
I was one of those residents the Reader’s Digest interviewed for the article. I’ve lived in Beaumont (in the middle of the county) for over twenty years ― and in the general area for all of my 56 years. I remember when the Leduc county was an ordinary place, filled with ordinary people who saw themselves as ordinary folks. They invested themselves in others instead of “portfolios”. They didn’t mind driving older vehicles or drying their laundry on clothes lines.
ACQUISITION AND PRETENSE
Then they got rich and full of themselves. They built monster houses in exclusive cul-de-sacs that don’t allow clothes lines. They drove new expensive vehicles with air-conditioning and electric windows. Blackberries became a status symbol rather than dessert.
I was inoculated from the affluence around me. Being crippled with MS for most of my adult life, and unable to work, all that affluence passed by me. I have a unique vantage point to observe “one of the richest regions on Earth.”
In the middle of the new Beaumont is old Beaumont where my little stucco house and yard back on to the main thoroughfare going through town into the heart of Leduc county. The BMWs, Lexus’s and Escalades towing large RV trailers drive past. I often privately wonder if the excessive luxury and show is really an attempt to compensate for interior poverty.
Behind a massive lilac hedge that insulates my yard from the hustle, I sit in my wheelchair feeding birds that live in the maple trees that predate the affluence. Again I wonder ― Who’s richer?
Granted, the global recession has even hit Leduc County ― albeit not as hard as elsewhere ― but things have slowed. Perhaps that’s a good thing. People may realize anew they really do need each other, and trade their independence for interdependence, and personal autonomy for community.
Perhaps.
Then they got rich and full of themselves. They built monster houses in exclusive cul-de-sacs that don’t allow clothes lines. They drove new expensive vehicles with air-conditioning and electric windows. Blackberries became a status symbol rather than dessert.
I was inoculated from the affluence around me. Being crippled with MS for most of my adult life, and unable to work, all that affluence passed by me. I have a unique vantage point to observe “one of the richest regions on Earth.”
In the middle of the new Beaumont is old Beaumont where my little stucco house and yard back on to the main thoroughfare going through town into the heart of Leduc county. The BMWs, Lexus’s and Escalades towing large RV trailers drive past. I often privately wonder if the excessive luxury and show is really an attempt to compensate for interior poverty.
Behind a massive lilac hedge that insulates my yard from the hustle, I sit in my wheelchair feeding birds that live in the maple trees that predate the affluence. Again I wonder ― Who’s richer?
Granted, the global recession has even hit Leduc County ― albeit not as hard as elsewhere ― but things have slowed. Perhaps that’s a good thing. People may realize anew they really do need each other, and trade their independence for interdependence, and personal autonomy for community.
Perhaps.
MP
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