A straightforward lie

[fpb]

It is my experience that Thatcherites, neo-liberists et hoc genus omne are pretty free and easy with data. Since they assume that statistics cannot but support their views, their interpretation of events and numbers tends to be, shall we say, loose. But does anything justify this semi-paragraph from the National Review?

While go-go capitalist countries like the United States, Australia, and the UK, and economically dynamic Scandinavian free-traders like Denmark and Sweden rank highest on happiness surveys, the economically sclerotic nations of “Old Europe” — such as Belgium, Austria, Germany, and France — are relegated to second-tier, “less happy” status. Worse still, France lurks at the bottom of the “less happy” nations, doing barely better than the relatively “unhappy” Italians.

"Economically dynamic Scandinavian free traders." Think about it. After a monstrosity of that kind, even to suggest that Italians and French might be "unhappy" for reasons not directly related to the joys of unfettered free enterprise (such as, say, being in the front line of an avalanche of immigration which is poisoning social relations all over the country) is a comparatively minor matter. This is a man who lives in dreamland.

Comments

[goreism.livejournal.com]

I suspect Wilkinson's referring to the fact that Scandinavian countries, despite their large government expenditures-to-GDP ratios, score high on indices of "economic freedom." Off the top of my head, Andreas Bergh has done some good work on this; this paper and its references are the place to start, if you can get access to them. Peter Lindert has also shown that the relatively liberal capital taxation regime has helped finance Scandinavian welfare states. Moreover, despite the generous unemployment insurance in Scandinavian countries, the system is structured differently from France and Germany. And finally, Sweden has no minimum wage, adopted school vouchers, partially privatized the pension system, and recently abolished the inheritance tax and the gift tax, just to mention a few examples.

Also, IIRC, the differences in subjective happiness scores persist even when controlling for factors like immigration and population demographics. I can't remember the specific research right now, though I think Robin Hanson might have done it.

That doesn't take away from the fact that subjective happiness reporting often produces some weird and counter-intuitive results, so a lot of economists look at such research as rather dodgy to start out with.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

My dear G., I can concede all the rest, but not the matter of immigration. Pardon me for telling you that I am Italian and you are not. Immigration in Italy is an ongoing catastrophe. It is surrounding our cities with shacks that are growing into whole third world favelas. It has brought the scum of the earth to our streets, and crime is out of control. A couple of weeks ago, the Chinese mafia rioted in the centre of Milan because they did not like the police checking on their sweatshops and illegal trades. Street crime is at nightmare levels, and prostitution makes the roads unsafe at night. And it is growing worse day by day. Five years ago, nobody thought that we would see shack districts around Rome in our lifetimes - the country had spent half a century eradicating them. And I now hear of scenes in Rome that I can hardly credit, such as whole markets set up by Arab traders in the middle of busy streets and suddenly removing themselves and vanishing as soon as someone sets up a cry - "I carabinieri!" If you tell me that this major social disaster, implying a mortal danger to the relaxed and pleasing way of life for which Italy was justly famous, has nothing to do with societal happiness, I must tell you, as I told Wilkinson, that you are living on the Moon. Luckily I do not believe that you even imagine anything so ridiculous.

[goreism.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it does have effects, even large effects, on reported subjective happiness; but it doesn't explain all the variation in happiness scores. That is, some of the variation persists even when controlling for immigration, and is partially explained by variations in average income. Wilkinson's website has a good bibliography.

Of course, I share your concern at the growth of shantytowns in Italy... but I'll have to leave off my comments here, because I just had a really lousy day that ended with my breaking my ankle. >_

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh God, that's dreadful. Please look after yourself. And may I express my thanks that, in such a situation, you found the time for something as unimportant as answering and informing me?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as for dynamicism, I suggest you check the performance of French and even Italian manufacturing industry, beginning with automotive. You know, automotive? That industry that no longer exists in Britain and that is being outsourced out of sight in the USA?

[wudjuwait.livejournal.com]

hey that's ok! peugot are building a nice shiny new head office in coventry and a handful of staff got nice jobs in their parts distribution center. bmw have 600, yes 600, apprentices. surely that compensates for the thousands no longer working doesn't it? :-\

btw i wandered over to see if you'd posted anything on the events at stormont...