People in Wichita beat themselves up a lot for their hometown being boring, too small, behind the times, too conservative socially and politically, etc. While there’s a lot of truth in those complaints, sometimes being last is a good thing when you’re in a pack of lemmings.
A case in point. Men’s Health magazine just released a list of the 10 best and worst cities for personal debt. It’s made up of things like bankruptcy, credit card debt, housing costs. On the worst list are many of the fastest-growing cities over the last 6 years. The high debt are: Phoenix, Modesto (Calif.), Denver, Riverside (Calif.), Jacksonville, Detroit, Sacramento, Atlanta, Aurora (Col.), Las Vegas.
The low personal debt cities are Wichita (ranked 10th best), Yonkers (N.Y.), Bangor (Maine), Charleston (W.Va), Lincoln (Neb.), Fargo (N.D.), Madison (Wis.), Sioux Falls (S.D.) and Billings (Mont.). And for some reason, Honolulu.
Thanks to the alert reader who brought this to my attention.