"Happiness has fallen in America

The USA is a story of reduced happiness. In 2007 the USA ranked 3rd among the OECD countries; in 2016 it came 19th. The reasons are declining social support and increased corruption (chapter 7) and it is these same factors that explain why the Nordic countries do so much better."

> I'm not trying to optimise for anything, rather I'd prefer people are given the chance to optimise for themselves how they spend their time and money, and the less bureaucracy they have to deal with, the easier it is for them to do this.

You've bought into the propaganda propagated by the ultra rich via cable news and other outlets in order to justify their continued accrual of more and more of the world's wealth: That economic freedom is just freedom from taxes - it's not freedom from ever worrying about going bankrupt or becoming homeless if you get sick. That society works better when nobody cares about the well-being of their fellow citizens, that the freedom to care about nobody but yourself somehow makes us stronger as a society, not weaker. That publicly run institutions are always just 'bureacracies' and 'inefficient' - not the solid foundations upon which other parts of society and the market can rest, which many public institutions prove every day, by freeing citizens and companies that rely on them from having to pay for one or more layers of shareholder profits, freeing them to invest in other things instead. The talking points you are reiterating sound good on their surface, but in reality they are just that, talking points. The reality of what the world becomes when they are used as policy is being felt all around the world these days.

Happiest countries don't have the highest suicide rate.

Nordic countries do have a significant portion of population living in areas where SAD is prevalent, which naturally causes increase in suicide rates. Yet they are not the highest rates.