Can deregulation and tax cuts make your lives happier?

(Quote)
“The country is mired in a roiling social crisis that is getting worse,” Sachs[economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey D. Sachs] wrote. “Yet the dominant political discourse is all about raising the rate of economic growth. And the prescriptions for faster growth—mainly deregulation and tax cuts — are likely to exacerbate, not reduce social tensions. Almost surely, further tax cuts will increase inequality, social tensions, and the social and economic divide between those with a college degree and those without.”
(Unquote)

The World Happiness Report is out and the U.S. has fallen. Sad! http://wapo.st/2nKa5lP?tid=ss_tw

Well, the measurements used were: Real GDP per capita, Healthy life expectancy at birth, Freedom to make life choices, Generosity, Perceptions of corruption

So deregulation would actually help a lot. However, I am not quite convinced that these measurements really represent happiness.

I am curious, how you feel about your own country, Japan, since it is ranked 51st? Do you perceive this to accurate?

"So deregulation would actually help a lot. "

In what way?

Greater freedom to make life choices, it can potentially increase the GDP per capita, and arguably reduce corruption since a bigger government can lead to higher corruption levels. However, the rating measures PERCEPTION of corruption so it may also remain unchanged.

“Trump repeatedly pledged to repeal financial regulations throughout his election campaign and even vowed to repeal Dodd-Frank, which was passed after the financial crisis with the aim of limiting Wall Street’s ability to make risky investments.”–Sam Meredith

Is this for making “life choices” easier? Can you remember how the “meltdown” happened?

Moral Hazard and the Meltdown Moral Hazard and the Meltdown - WSJ @WSJOpinion

GDP, freedom to make life choices and perceptions of corruption(can’t corrupt someone that doesn’t have any power) are quite obvious. The others are more open to debate.

I am curious, how you feel about your own country, Japan, since it is ranked 51st? Do you perceive this to accurate? From this study it looks like I would be happier living in Russia.

Have you read the title of this tread?

Jeffrey D. Sachs wrote, "[T]he prescriptions for faster growth—mainly deregulation and tax cuts — are likely to exacerbate, not reduce social tensions. "

Yup: "Can deregulation and tax cuts make your lives happier?’

Would Japan benefit from these tactics to improve their low ranking?

Japan has an incredibly low intentional murder rate. Sounds very safe. Hell it’s even safer than Norway.

“Would Japan benefit from these tactics to improve their low ranking?”

Whose tactics? In what way can deregulation and tax cuts make your lives happier?

Based on your title “Can deregulation and tax cuts make your lives happier?” The tactics would be deregulation and tax cuts.

They are tactics free-market fundamentalists, who tend to oppose “protectionism”, recommend.

“They are tactics free-market fundamentalists recommend.”

Is that a “yes” or “no” answer? The question was “Would Japan benefit from these tactics to improve their low ranking?”

At least in Japan as well as in the U.S., deregulation and tax cuts will NOT make the lives happier. This is my point; I agree with Jeffrey D. Sachs. I think you do not need to read between the lines.

Can you remember how the “meltdown” in financial market happened?

Moral Hazard and the Meltdown Moral Hazard and the Meltdown - WSJ @WSJOpinion

I remember: The Government Did It

"It is popular to take low lending standards as proof that the free market has failed, that the system that is supposed to reward productive behavior and punish unproductive behavior has failed to do so. Yet this claim ignores that for years irrational lending standards have been forced on lenders by the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and rewarded (at taxpayers’ expense) by multiple government bodies.

The CRA forces banks to make loans in poor communities, loans that banks may otherwise reject as financially unsound. Under the CRA, banks must convince a set of bureaucracies that they are not engaging in discrimination, a charge that the act encourages any CRA-recognized community group to bring forward. Otherwise, any merger or expansion the banks attempt will likely be denied. But what counts as discrimination?"

"The government has promoted bad loans not just through the stick of the CRA but through the carrot of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase, securitize and guarantee loans made by lenders and whose debt is itself implicitly guaranteed by the federal government. This setup created an easy, artificial profit opportunity for lenders to wrap up bundles of subprime loans and sell them to a government-backed buyer whose primary mandate was to “promote homeownership,” not to apply sound lending standards.

Of course, lenders not only sold billions of dollars in suspect loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, contributing to their present debacle, they also retained some subprime loans themselves and sold others to Wall Street–leading to the huge banking losses we have been witnessing for months. Is this, then, a free market failure? Again, no."

Do you want to drink contaminated water.

Do you want to be forced to work to death?

Do you want to eat unhealthy food?

Do you want to be cheated by wicked estate agents?

“Do you want to drink contaminated water”

This is one of the problems with living in Taiwan. The water provided by the government is not drinkable. Luckily through the market I can purchase the correct products to make the water drinkable fixing the government failure.

“Do you want to be forced to work to death?”

Nope, I can leave my job if I am not satisfied, only through increased regulation would I be forced to work to death. (This literally happens in N. Korea)

“Do you want to eat unhealthy food?”

There was an cooking oil scandal here in Taiwan a few years back causing drastic health issues to the population, but because the regulation against this oil was not severe they got off lightly. Without the regulation they could have been charged with fraud and sentenced more severely. BUT many companies pulled products that might have been apart of the scandal just as a precaution, they continued selling the products again once their supply chain was safe.

“Do you want to be cheated by wicked estate agents?”

Looking at history, I am less concerned about wicked real estate agents and more concerned with the government forcing these real estate agents to engage in unethical behavior(see previous post)