America
at the Turn of the Century
As America approaches the twenty-first
century we are faced with many challenges as a country. The United States
has a very strong country due to a few things that keep the country standing.
The sufficient military has helped many other countries out of wars, the
strong economy is the basis of the world’s economy, and the United States
has a very advanced technology that has also helped rule the world today.
These three things are so strong that there is not much that would bring
them down. But in each category there are many small weaknesses that could
cause our country to collapse as a whole around the turn of the century.
The political scandals have caused us to have a very low voter percentage,
and therefore our democratic government is slowly coming to a halt. The
gap between the rich and the poor is disturbing the financial status of
the country. There is a big increase in school violence that is scaring
many parents in this nation. If this isn’t stopped the free education aspect
of our country will not be offered in the future. Therefore, many historians
believe that these few weaknesses could make a fairly self sufficient country
fall.
President Clinton is a perfect example
for the political scandals of our country. In January of 1997 it was announced
to the country that President Clinton allegedly had an affair with one
of the interns at the White House. Over the period of the next few months
President Clinton not only denied the whole thing, then made another statement
that he actually did have an affair with the intern Monica Lewinsky. America
is the only country that would prosecute this kind of thing. Most of the
other countries laughed at us, while no politician was laughing.
In fact when all these personal matters about President Clinton came about,
he was in the middle of negotiating a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel
, and the trails of President Clinton’s impeachment case interrupted the
peace treaties, which was a major setback for Israel and Jordan.
The scandals that President Clinton presented the country with an issue
of trust. The nation should not be expected to trust a president
who lies to the country, and neither should the other nations for that
matter. If we can’t trust our governmental leaders how will we survive
as a country? Although the personal aspects of the President do not
affect the passing of bills and laws it does effect the public aspects
of the democratic government that we have now. We have the lowest percentage
of voting in the world, and if no one can trust the officials running,
then that percentage could get even lower. This could cause our country
to have a governmental problem in the future. We could even start electing
people that wouldn’t do the correct job and bring the United States into
financial and governmental troubles and distraught times. If it ever did
come to this the gap between the rich and the poor even larger than it
already is.
As the stock market rises and technology
advances the rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be getting
poorer. The country doesn’t seem to be doing much about this problem.
It is almost at the point where we are not going to be able to fix the
gap that is there already. All the poor population needs is a chance to
get ahead without opportunities taken away from them. Many historians believe
that if the poor don’t get this chance by the end of the twentieth
century, or even by the end of the twenty-first century there is going
to be no chance for them to catch up, or even stop themselves from getting
poorer. Some investment bankers believe that there is going to be
a steady decline of stocks to a bear market, which would not only effect
the rich, but the poor as well. Together as a country we would all get
poorer. Therefore it is important for the poor population to gain some
wealth. This could cause a financial problem for the United States as a
whole. If that were to happen then our military system would not work.
Our system is based upon the financial status of the country. They have
funds to go into other countries and “bail” them out of jams. This would
not be possible if we didn’t have any money. Another gap between the rich
and the poor is the differences between medi-care and medi-caid.
If a rich person and a poor person both go to the hospital for the same
problem odds are that the rich person is going to get the better treatment
because they have money. Although this is not ethically right, it is the
only way it can be, according to the insurance companies. Medi-caid offers
health care to the poor who can’t afford the medical bills. Medi-care offers
health care to the old, who can’t afford the medical bills. Even
now, the costs of the medical bills are going up so much that many times
hospitals don’t even accept the patient if they have medi-care or medi-caid.
Things like medial care changes the way people are looked at. A lot of
times there is no way of telling whether a person is rich or poor. That
is causing a lot of troubles with school violence.
In Littleton, Colorado last spring a child
walked into his school and opened fire on his classmates killing thirteen.
He was aiming for a certain group of kids, the rich and the jocks. This
was because he didn’t have all the things they had. There is no way to
distinguish the differences between the poor kid that has a problem and
the rich kid that doesn’t or visa versa. The country’s education system
should be able to recognize the differences no matter what the problem
is. And we should not accept the fact that this kid got away with what
he did. We should look harder into each student rather than at the population
as a whole. It is not just students who are committing the crimes, but
they seem to be the victims. This past summer a man walked into a California
daycare center and opened fire. This should not be allowed. In the past
ten years not only has there been an increase in school violence, but there
has also been an increase in terrorism. These random outbursts of violence
need to stop before the end of the century or we are going to be faced
with serious problems as a country. We could have serious chaos and
need the military. But that shouldn’t happen if the country is under control.
In conclusion there are many weaknesses
of our country that could make our country’s strengths weaker, and as a
country we would become a weaker country as a result. The economy might
become weaker, as will the military and the technology of the country.
As for the future, who only knows what it holds for the United States as
a country. One might think that there are going to be hard times ahead,
not only for the rich, but for the poor as well. And not only for the government
or the military, but for the economy as well. We will just have to wait
and see.
