Governments think they have to intervene everywhere to improve our lives and make us happier. But if legislation brings happiness, then we ought to have the happiest population on the planet, Brunel University Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz told an Adam Smith Institute seminar last night.

Unfortunately, state intervention usually stops people from doing what they want to do - and ends up making them less happy. In a market economy, people exchange goods, services and money voluntarily because they believe they will benefit from the exchange. Swapping what they have for something they want more makes them happier. Where regulation thwarts free exchange, it eats in to our pursuit of happiness.

Of course, nearly all regulations have some justification. We don't want unsuspecting people buying electrical goods that are unsafe, for example. But much of the regulation that is justified in this way is actually an attempt by those in authority to stamp on everyone else their own view of how people live. We've seen that recently in the UK with all the dreary middle-class prattling about how those awful American-style casinos would corrupt us all if our 40-year-old gambling laws were liberalized. And there is no shortage of people who would like to modify our behaviour to fit in with their own view of how we should live.

Governments can't legislate us happy. "There have been many more bad governments in history than good ones," concluded Schwartz. "The benefits of freedom are under threat - from ourselves."