America At The Turn Of The Century

Essay, Research Paper

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.