Comments on: People Aren’t Happy, So Let’s Fix It With Taxes

By: HotJavaJack

HotJavaJack — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:43:06 +0000

“But people would be deterred from acting on the green-eyed monster. The problem these economists want to tackle is not inequality per se. It is that people don’t know their place and scramble vainly to improve it.”

It is appalling to find that anyone believes that it is the role of government to legislate people’s avoidance of envy and of “knowing their place.” Ugh.

By: John W. McKenna

John W. McKenna — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:31:08 +0000

Rob
A more vexing question would be hard to find. I believe you are on target; disconnected management is a terrible driver of unhappiness. This is where I would usually place a plug about how the Leadership Epidemic and the Convention Wisdom of the Leadership-Industrial Complex selling false leadership hope are the primary drivers behind this problem. However, I’m not sure that’s the answer. I have to agree with David Foster’s assessment; a lot of people are pursuing careers based on vague ideas about what it means to work in that field. I’ve experienced this myself in the three career paths that I’ve pursued. I was in my 30s before I found a rewarding professional calling. For me, I believe time and experience was the great arbiter in my finding the path that I’m on. In short, while I’m not fond of blame, in the case of happiness, I believe responsibility lies on the shoulders of all the participants, not just the leaders.
Take care…
John

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:22:48 +0000

This is exactly what’s happened in much of northern Europe: high taxes cement existing wealth hierarchies, because most taxes go after cashflow and not existing wealth. Since people can’t better themselves through wealth, they go into nonproductive areas like government.

The Economist has been going downhill for the past few years, having bought into silliness such as global warming hysteria and lots of oddball excuses for confiscatory taxation. Taxes will kill your aspirations and force you to do stuff that makes you happy, thereby setting you free! Pass the bong, dood!

By: J

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:04:47 +0000

“The assumption behind so much left-wing thinking is that we should all be more equal”

No, that’s the pitch behind so much (well, all really) left-wing thinking. But “man should content himself with being the worthy follower of worthy superiors” describes leftist objectives pretty much to the letter, though that mindset isn’t restricted to leftists.

By: david foster

david foster — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:53:57 +0000

“channel people to do work that they really enjoy”…managers indeed should strive to do a better job at this. But flexibility is limited because so many people choose their careers based on extremely vague information about what the fields will be like and what they will pay. There are kazillions of people going to law school today because they can’t think of anything else to do. In 10 years, it’s going to be difficult for even the most talented managers to make good use of the unhappy ones and the ones who aren’t very good at law. The same is true in lots of other fields.

Social prejudices play a strong role: there are probably lots of people who could be excellent (and financially well-off) salespeople, but never considered the possibility because of the image of Willy Loman.