Pardon the observation, but I think some of you are taking this a little personally and defensively. We all should want everyone to have a better life, shouldn't we? And... Dr. Phil-ism alert... people can't change things if they won't even acknowledge there are problems.
My mom isn't miserable. She would be far more miserable living here in this Texas heat where I live... notably, enough, in city #6 in Casey's countdown (but at least we have the benefit of Houston just down the road an hour or so). She has her network of friends there in Hgtn, and everything is very familiar... important factors at any age, but especially at 80. Many if not most of you posting to this board from Hgtn obviously love continuing to live there.
But if my mom could help make it so that more people are living a quality of life that is closer to the median in all of the ways quality of life is measured, why wouldn't she? And as I hope MU faculty will notice, if this gives them even better traction to attract large federal grants, why wouldn't they?
Glass is half-full, in my opinion.