I don't know about assigning factional values, but I'll comment on those factors a bit.
I think on the average social programs decrease our standard of living, but they on the net decrease inequality, and sometimes can increase the standard for the poor (the direct effect of all but the most horribly designed programs would increase the standard of living for the poor, but the indirect effects of some of the more poorly designed ones work to decrease the SOL of the poor. To an extent this problem was addressed by welfare reform)
I think state and federal minimum wages also decrease our standard of living. And in fact in many cases they decrease it most of the worst off, because they create unemployment. OTOH they are often low enough so that the effect on unemployment probably isn't all that great.
Tax changes, well changes includes all sorts of changes, so you would have all sorts of effects positive and negative. Generally tax decreases and tax simplification will help the economy and people's standards of living while increases and added complexity will do the opposite. The benefit of the decreases would be much larger with lower spending. Increasing spending with the tax cut means your borrowing money, which also pulls wealth away from the private sector. The borrowing is less distorting than raising the same money thought our complex tax laws, but if you borrow you create pressure for future tax increases.
Immigration. This is the one I'm least certain about. I think its fairly clear that the net effect on all Americans including the new immigrants is positive. But what if you don't count the benefit to the people who previously where not Americans? Well if you drop that off I still think there is a benefit, but its smaller, less obvious, less certain, and more reasonably contested. I wouldn't spend a lot of time arguing for the claim that there is a benefit, because even though I believe there is, I'm not strongly convinced, and I don't have a lot of data or argument to back up the claim.
Monetary policy - Well I think overall, it has been decently run over the last couple of decades and I think this has helped, but there have been mistakes that have caused problems, and I think we are getting more mistakes now. If monetary policy was very easy to get right, I would say the Fed has done a poor job, but I think its hard to get right, and in light of that point, its done ok in recent decades, certainly better than at some other points in the 20th century.
Free trade - This is the most clear positive, at least for the long run. But changes in trade patterns do hurt some people. Creative destruction, does involve destruction, its just that the creation outweighs it over time. |
