Americaat the Turn of the CenturyAs America approaches the twenty-firstcentury we are faced with many challenges as a country. The United Stateshas 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, thestrong economy is the basis of the world’s economy, and the United Stateshas 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 bringthem down. But in each category there are many small weaknesses that couldcause 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. Thegap between the rich and the poor is disturbing the financial status ofthe country. There is a big increase in school violence that is scaringmany parents in this nation.
If this isn’t stopped the free education aspectof our country will not be offered in the future. Therefore, many historiansbelieve that these few weaknesses could make a fairly self sufficient countryfall. President Clinton is a perfect examplefor the political scandals of our country. In January of 1997 it was announcedto the country that President Clinton allegedly had an affair with oneof the interns at the White House.
Over the period of the next few monthsPresident Clinton not only denied the whole thing, then made another statementthat he actually did have an affair with the intern Monica Lewinsky. Americais the only country that would prosecute this kind of thing. Most of theother 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 thepeace treaties, which was a major setback for Israel and Jordan.
The scandals that President Clinton presented the country with an issueof trust. The nation should not be expected to trust a presidentwho lies to the country, and neither should the other nations for thatmatter. If we can’t trust our governmental leaders how will we surviveas a country? Although the personal aspects of the President do notaffect the passing of bills and laws it does effect the public aspectsof the democratic government that we have now. We have the lowest percentageof voting in the world, and if no one can trust the officials running,then that percentage could get even lower. This could cause our countryto have a governmental problem in the future.
We could even start electingpeople that wouldn’t do the correct job and bring the United States intofinancial and governmental troubles and distraught times. If it ever didcome to this the gap between the rich and the poor even larger than italready is. As the stock market rises and technologyadvances the rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be gettingpoorer. 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 thegap that is there already. All the poor population needs is a chance toget ahead without opportunities taken away from them. Many historians believethat if the poor don’t get this chance by the end of the twentiethcentury, or even by the end of the twenty-first century there is goingto be no chance for them to catch up, or even stop themselves from gettingpoorer. Some investment bankers believe that there is going to bea steady decline of stocks to a bear market, which would not only effectthe rich, but the poor as well.
Together as a country we would all getpoorer. Therefore it is important for the poor population to gain somewealth. This could cause a financial problem for the United States as awhole. If that were to happen then our military system would not work.
Our system is based upon the financial status of the country. They havefunds to go into other countries and “bail” them out of jams. This wouldnot be possible if we didn’t have any money. Another gap between the richand 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 sameproblem odds are that the rich person is going to get the better treatmentbecause they have money. Although this is not ethically right, it is theonly way it can be, according to the insurance companies.
Medi-caid offershealth care to the poor who can’t afford the medical bills. Medi-care offershealth care to the old, who can’t afford the medical bills. Evennow, the costs of the medical bills are going up so much that many timeshospitals 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 oftimes there is no way of telling whether a person is rich or poor.
Thatis causing a lot of troubles with school violence. In Littleton, Colorado last spring a childwalked 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. Thiswas because he didn’t have all the things they had. There is no way todistinguish the differences between the poor kid that has a problem andthe rich kid that doesn’t or visa versa.
The country’s education systemshould be able to recognize the differences no matter what the problemis. And we should not accept the fact that this kid got away with whathe did. We should look harder into each student rather than at the populationas a whole. It is not just students who are committing the crimes, butthey seem to be the victims. This past summer a man walked into a Californiadaycare center and opened fire. This should not be allowed.
In the pastten years not only has there been an increase in school violence, but therehas also been an increase in terrorism. These random outbursts of violenceneed to stop before the end of the century or we are going to be facedwith serious problems as a country. We could have serious chaos andneed the military. But that shouldn’t happen if the country is under control.
In conclusion there are many weaknessesof our country that could make our country’s strengths weaker, and as acountry we would become a weaker country as a result. The economy mightbecome 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 asa 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 governmentor the military, but for the economy as well. We will just have to waitand see.
