Decision 2020

This book, written by an outsider, clarifies the issues as she sees it, facing Americans in the upcoming 2020 Presidential election.But it is an important perspective, as what Americans do, affects the entire world.The author, Joan Williams, a retired radio talks show host and opinion journalist, spent many years of her life fighting against the counter-productive and debilitating socialist system. She had at first endorsed the socialist philosophy because its proponents made it sound like Utopia in action, but when it was introduced into her country, Jamaica, she soon recognized that state-control only led to massive corruption, destruction of the economy, high unemployment, food shortages, hardships, and the withering of individual rights and freedoms, as is evident in Venezuela today, the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world.The introduction of socialism which caused a virtual civil war in her small island in the 1970's, led Miss Williams to have to put her life in grave danger and endure heart-break misery, as she was forced to send her children away to keep them out of danger. In Part 1, she shares with readers why she first endorsed then rejected socialism.Ms. Williams, who has visited Cuba several times, East Germany twice when the Berlin wall existed, and more recently, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, points out with examples, how socialism differs totally from what exists in countries with market economies, such as Canada and Europe, whose liberal social policies are often confused by many in the USA with socialism, which is dependent on a state-controlled economic system. In Part 11, she outlines, quoting extensively from numerous published articles, why she is convinced that the Republican party, has fully embraced a dangerous, brutal, unjust racist philosophy which is not only sapping energies and dividing the country, but which is also pass .In Part 111, she explains how the World Happiness Report was developed and looks at some of the policies employed in the top ten "happiest" countries in the world. Canada, the USA's neighbor to the north, has consistently featured among the top ten while the richer and more powerful USA, has never been. In the report published in 2019, the American citizens polled, gave answers which caused their country to fall five places, so America is now at #19, implying that Canadians feel they are more than twice as happy as Americans Reviewing the results, Ms. Williams, examines some taxation measures and regulatory policies in the top ten progressive market economies where citizens say they are happiest and the system more equitable, as they prevent exploitation of the many by the few.Further, she examines the social programs they employ, and suggests that the USA needs to learn from those countries, if Americans are ever to succeed in their "pursuit of happiness", an aim of the founding fathers, as set out in the Declaration of Independence.