Republicans keep Americans from being Happy!

Why do Republicans keep making life more complicated, unbearable, and cruel? It's crazy but Republicans have oddly targeted life's bigger events with Rube Goldberg "solutions." There's got to be a better use of our time.

So "what do Democrats stand for?"

Thanks to the United Nations 2017 World Happiness Report, Democrats can riff off the 3 biggest changes this country can make to make everyone happy again. Look, 19th place is a big drop from 2007's third-place ranking.

Let's help Americans live again:

All of the top 15 countries have progressive/socialist governments whose policies contribute to the contentment of their citizens. The three most significant policies for these countries are:

1. Universal free health care for their citizens.
2. Outstanding free public education.
3. Strong environmental standards and access to public lands such as parks and refuges for their citizens.

Simple, isn't it? But Republicans hate these things, which runs counter to polling:

Health and happiness are inextricably linked. All the top-ranked countries have socialized medicine so that the average citizen doesn’t have to worry about not being able to afford insurance and necessary medical care. The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world without universal health care. Compared to other developed countries U.S. citizens pay far more for their health care, and yet the U.S. ranks near the bottom in quality of their health care. In Costa Rica the death rate for heart disease is one-third less than in the U.S., even though Costa Rica spends one-tenth as much per capita on health care as the U.S.

Quality public education is the great equalizer. With a good education the poor can rise to the top; without it out their opportunities are limited. In Norway, university students draw a government stipend as well as free tuition. Compare that to the U.S. where middle-class students can finish college encumbered with almost insurmountable debt.

People are simply happier and healthier when they live in an environment with clean air and water; all of the top countries have tough, strictly enforced environmental regulations. The top-ranked countries also have large areas of public land set aside for the public to enjoy. Costa Rica has 25 percent of its land set aside as parks and refuges, whereas the U.S. has only 14 percent. Much of the public land in the U.S. is open to mining, oil drilling, logging and livestock grazing, which are not allowed on public lands in the happiest countries.

Again...:

In summary, the top-ranked countries have a social system that takes care of most people’s needs, leaving them feeling safe, comparatively healthy, and free of most of life’s biggest worries, while providing an environment where most people can make a living.

The U.S. is headed in the wrong direction ... Much of the change can be blamed directly on the impact of the Republican Party on government policies. If you’re still voting Republican you evidently feel that Americans are just too darn happy. If we can just increase American’s anxiety over health care, destroy our public education system, and return to the days when the air in our cities stunk and our rivers were flowing sewers, we can move the U.S. out of the top 50 happiest countries. Seems like an admirable goal for the Republican Party.

Thank you, Scott Walker: Back here in Wisconsin, where the Republican extreme is playing out under career politician Scott Walker (for god's sake he raised a family, from cradle to college, on taxpayer money):

The closest the U.S. has ever come to universal health care is Obamacare, but Republicans are enraged over the government doing anything at all to help its citizens obtain quality health care.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has led the nation in attacking public education both by dismantling teachers’ security through Act 10, and through the use of vouchers to divert funding from public schools to private schools, including many for-profit schools.

Walker in Wisconsin and Trump on the federal level have been a two-man wrecking crew on environmental protection. In Wisconsin, Republicans have disemboweled our once-proud and effective Department of Natural Resources and reduced protections for the environment on every front.