Chapter 26: The United States in Today’s World
Section 1: The 1990’s and the New Millennium
William Jefferson Clinton- 1st member of the baby-boom generation to win the presidency at the young age of 46 focused on the economic crisis in the 92 election
Bush lost support after the gulf war in 1991 and H. Ross Perot, a third party candidate, Texas billionaire, aimed at the soaring federal budget deficit.
1992 election results popular vote
Clinton 43%
Bush 38%
Perot 19%
Clinton was a New Democrat who wanted to move people off welfare, called for growth in private business and modernize liberalism
Hillary Rodham Clinton- 1st lady and was a skilled lawyer and good public speaker
Clinton’s Health Care plan never was voted on but his efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit were successful. For the first time in 30 years the federal budget had a surplus. Also a bill passed which would move people from welfare to jobs quicker.
1993- WorldTradeCenter bombings occurred by terrorists followed by Oklahoma City bombings killing 168. Tom McVeigh was found guilty and was executed in 2001 which was the first use of the death penalty in 38 years.
April 1999- ColumbineHigh School, 12 students were killed and 23 wounded by other students.
September 11th, 2001- two hijacked commercial airplanes struck the twin towers of the WorldTradeCenter in New York. Then an hour later the Pentagon was struck. A fourth hijacked plane crashed near PittsburgPennsylvania. The deaths totaled 3,000
Maintaining relations with Russian and China became major goals for the Clinton administration. A bloody civil war raged in Yugoslavia and it broke up into five states. China was still being stressed to grant their citizens democratic rights. US and China’s trade was good!
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)- a defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by ten Western European Countries, the United states and Canada.
This brought Mexico into the free trade zone that the US and Canada already formed. Trade with Mexico increased.
Newt Gingrich was chosen as speaker of the house after drafting a document called Contract with America which was ten items Republicans promised to enact if they won control of Congress which they did. 1st time since 1954 the Republicans had control of the House and the Senate.
Clinton gets reelected in 1996 defeating Bob Dole then Clinton was accused of improperly using money improperly in his 1984 campaign as well as having sexual relations with an intern at the white house. Clinton was impeached but finished his term due to a vote in the senate.
In the 2000 Election….
Al Gore- Democrat VP to Clinton ran against
George Bush- Republican Governor of Texas and son of former president Bush
Ralph Nadar- Ran for the Green House Party which championed environmental causes
On the night of the election television networks projected the Gore would win Florida but then recanted their original projection about Gore’s victory over Florida and proclaimed that it was “to close to call.”
By 2 AM the networks proclaimed that Bush was the winner of Florida and the presidency although Al Gore won the popular vote. There was an automatic recount and from then on voting booths were being redesigned.
Lawyers took this issue to the Supreme Court and it was over whether a manual recount would be held in counties in Florida. Democrats pushed for the recount while Republicans wanted to stop it. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to stop the recount therefore awarding the presidency to Bush.
Bush’s Administration
43rd president proposed to cut taxes, reform education (No Child Left Behind Act) and mandatory testing with in each state for students, and privatize social security
9/11 terrorist attacks shifted Bushes focus on combating terrorist
-passed a law detaining foreigners suspected of terrorism for seven days without charging a crime and the creation of the Department of Homeland security
-War on Terrorism
-First focus was on Osama bin Laden in and the Al-Qaeda terrorist in Afghanistan
-Then Bush expanded his war on Terrorism to Iraq and Saddam Hussein
-Saddam refused to cooperate with Bush’s orders to stop producing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Section 2: The New Global Economy
By 2000 80% of the jobs were service jobs such as teachers, medical professions, waiters, lawyers, engineers, store clerks, etc…This caused growth in the Service Sector.
Service Sector- the part of the economy that provides consumers with services rather than goods
Low paying part time staff caused many companies and corporations to downsize.
Downsize- to dismiss numbers of permanent employees in an attempt to make operations more efficient and save money
Many factories had to downsize because half the amount of men was needed to do the same job as others. Computers and cheap labor replaced the average laborer
Computer technology started to grow in the late 1990’s
Bill Gates- one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs of computers with Microsoft. In one year he grossed 60 Billion dollars (richest man in the world).
New internet businesses started to grow known as….
National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ)- a stock exchange for over-the-counter sales, comprised largely of technology companies, these companies were known as Dotcoms- a business related to or conducted on the internet
Then internet business boom was known as “The New Economy” and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. However “The New Economy,” was short lived with only 38% of online retailing making a profit. These failed because of hard to use websites which confused the customers.
2002- Enron was charges with using illegal accounting practices and WorldCom filed the world’s largest bankruptcy.
Trade started to expand and with expansion a new version of NAFTA was formed….
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)- Treaty that lowered barriers, such as tariffs, and established World Trade Organization to resolve trade disputes.
In 1990s US business frequently moved their businesses to less economically advanced countries such as Mexico where wages were lower. More than 100,000 US jobs were lost.
The US economy had suffered in the start of the 21st century and global economy was suffering. Some felt the global economy would only get better if US’s economy recovered.
Section 3: Technology and Modern Life
The Communication Revolution
-Home Computers became widely available for thousands of people
-E-mail started to grow
Information Superhighway- a network of communication devices linking pwople and institutions across the national and the world
Internet- International network linking computers and allowing almost instant transmittal of test, images, and sound.
-The Internet was originally developed in 1960’s for defense research
-Internet drew popularity in colleges in the 80’s
-By 1990’s the internet was a household work
-Fantasy environments were created and virtual worlds
-By 2000 97 million Americans used the Internet regularly
-Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS) were created
-Telecommute- work out of their homes
-Telecommunication Act of 1996- this law enacted to remove barriers that had previously prevented communications companies form engaging in more than one type of communications business
-V-Chip in TV’s so parents can block certain stations
Scientific Advances
Visual imaging and artificial Intelligence (computers ability to perform activities that require intelligence) started to be used in industry, education, and medicine
-virtual reality began with flight simulators used to train military pilots
-Doctors use a virtual reality to take computerized tours of a patients throat and lungs to check for medical problems
-Long distance surgery through telepresence systems- gloves, computers, and robotic elements specially wired so that a doctor can operate on a patient 1000 miles away
-Voice recognition systems
-By 2000 robots had ability to walk on two legs, interact with people, learn behaviors, and express feelings with facial jesters,
-1997 NASA’s pathfinder and its rover sojourner transmitted live pictures from space
-Tracking asteroids and comets
-Human Genome Project- an international effort to map the genes of the human body
-Biotechnology- “Dolly” sheep was cloned , then two monkeys in Oregon, people started to question human cloning.
-Genetic Engineering- artificial changing of the molecular biology of organisms cells to alter an organism
-Cancer survival rates improved drastically, improvements in stopping the spread of HIV, Magnetic resonance imaging (used to produce cross-sectional images of any part of the body), nanosensors (one-thousandth the width of a human hair to find tumors and to repair genes and tissues)
-Americans abusing the environment, Oil provides 85% of the energy but also causes poor air quality, acid rain, and global warming.
-Recycling on the curbside started to occur throughout the 90’s
Section 4: The Changing Face of America
Urban Flight- migration of people from cities to the surrounding suburbs
-caused cities to depopulate and turn to slums
Gentrification- the process of restoring deteriorated urban property by middle-class people, which often results in the displacement of lower-income residents
Proposition 187- a bill passed in California in 1994 that ended all education and no emergency health benefits to illegal immigrants