1. Describe the major social issues in the United States that we discussed in class.
Gun Control: Some favor gun control. Some think gun control laws are unconstitutional. (protected by 2nd amendment-Right to bear arms) Were making a lot more gun laws since there has been a lot more shootings whether it is mall shootings or a school shootings.
Abortion: Some people think that it is a woman’s right and they should make their own choices. Others think that abortion should be illegal and restricted by law. According to the map on the political power point a minor must notify one parent before getting an abortion. Two sides to this controversy; pro-life and pro-choice.
Immigration: Some think that illegal immigrants are here illegally and should be punished for their crime. Obama says that illegal immigrants should be granted amnesty and given a chance to earn citizenship. Obama also thinks that people with an advanced STEM diploma should be given green cards so they can go out and start good businesses and help our economy.
Legalization of Marijuana: Marijuana is legal for medicinal use in 20 states and Washington D.C. There are two sides of this story. There are many positive effects and negative effects of marijuana.
Positive:
-Relaxation
-Munchies (help people eat more)
-Decrease anxiety
-Decrease depression
-Very hard to overdose on marijuana
Negative:
-Munchies (eating too much could be unhealthy)
-Forgetfulness
-Concentration difficulties
-Oversleeping
-Dizziness
-Nausea
-Getting high if taking too much
Same Sex Marriage: Same sex marriage is legal in 15 states and Washington D.C. People that agree with it think that it should be legal and think that there should be laws in place to make sure that people get equal protection as non-same sex marriages. People that don’t agree with it think that it is not a real marriage, and think it deprives the child of a mother or father. Lots of major religious groups disagree with same sex marriage.
2. What are the main economic and political systems that are practiced in the world and how do they differ?
Economic and Political Systems:
Democracy
Direct:
Everyone participates
Majority rules
Representative:
Everyone votes for people to make laws for the country
Majority rules
Monarchy
Absolute
The king/queen has total power
Like a dictatorship
Constitutional
King/queen doesn't have full power
More of a symbol of spirit
Dictatorship
Absolute power for one person or a small group of people
Anarchy
Lack of government
The people do what they want
Communism
Government has complete control
All money is evenly distributed
3. What are the major differences between democrats and republicans in the United States?
Democrats: Liberal, favor change in society, oppose government intervention into one’s private life, support regulations on economic activity and businesses, favor an active role of government in society, want to increase taxes to support systems.
Republicans: Conservative, favor limited role for government, favor lower taxes, believe in trickle-down theory, and believe in rugged individualism.
4. What is income inequality, why is it an issue and what can be done to help improve it?
Income Inequality:
Definition: Income inequality refers to how evenly or unevenly income is distributed in a society.
Why it is an Issue: The rich are taking a lot of the US’s wealth and the poor are getting a lot less. Pretty much the saying “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” comes into effect in this situation. Prosperity is not being distributed equally; instead it’s being concentrated in the hands of a few.
What Can be Done?: Break down social barriers, unify public schools if there are two schools and they seem to be separated by class, raise the minimum wage, higher taxes for the rich, give workers more power within their company by creating unions, and limits on campaign spending could help the minorities with not as much money have a heavier influence on elections. Rich people are pretty much buying the winner of the campaign. One more thing that could help would be giving money to the poor.
5. Discuss 9-11 and the impact it had on the US.
Discuss 9-11 and the impact it had on the US.
9/11 was a terrorist attack on the United States on the date of September 11th 2001 by the terrorist group of Al Qaeda. There were four planes and each one that was taken over was sent to take down some aspect of our freedom: Twin towers (economical), Pentagon (military), and the last one of the four planes was supposedly sent to crash into the White House, but it was taken over by civilians and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. (Political)
The US used to support Al Qaeda because they were rebelling against the Soviet Union, which was one of our biggest enemies back in the 70’s. The group was very small compared to the Soviet army, but they weakened the army by taking out small parts at a time. The Soviet Union eventually couldn’t handle the group and withdrew from the war in 1989.
Impacts:
Death (About 3,000 were killed in the terrorist attack on 9/11.)
Homeland Security was created to protect our country from something like this happening ever again.
There is increased security in airports/on planes. (Full body scans, no knives, pat downs, no large containers of liquid, air marshals, increased security of cockpit.)
Positive effect: Made our country more patriotic for a few years because everyone wanted one thing; to go in and kill who was responsible for taking the lives of 3,000 Americans.
Decade of war in Afghanistan which has killed about 2,000 total US military soldiers.
Our budget for our security agencies also increased by a ton.
Deportation has been another impact of 9/11. The number of illegal immigrants being deported doubled after 9/11.
After 9/11 the DOW stock market dropped 600 points immediately because the twin towers were major economical buildings.
The attack also led to one of the largest spending programs in US history; the War on Terror
6. Discuss the Iraq War and the impact it had on the US.
The Iraq war started because the US wanted to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The US military wanted to disarm Iraq of all weapons of mass destruction to stop these weapons ending up in the hands of terrorists. The US wanted to free the Iraqi people and end the human rights violation of the governing Baath party. Saddam Hussein was the dictator of this party and he had gassed his people. His army invaded Kuwait and the US sent soldiers into Saudi Arabia to try to pressure Saddam to pull his soldiers out, but he didn’t. The US then invaded Kuwait and pushed out all of his forces in about a month. This war lasted for March of 2003 until 2011. The US entered Iraq because we knew Saddam Hussein was there. Some soldiers caught him in a hole, and he was hanged by the Iraq government. Saddam may have said he had nuclear weapons as a bluff so Iran, the country’s biggest enemy, didn’t attack them.
The impact the War in Iraq would be of course casualties and cost($$) but also that it became very negative in the US because people started believing that the US lied to the people as far as why we went to war there(WMD's). Then Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke out and it became even more negative.
The Iraq war started because we wanted to take Saddam Hussein out of power, and make sure Iraq had no WMD’s. . The US wanted to free the Iraqi people and end the human rights violation of the governing Baath party. Saddam Hussein was the dictator of this party and he had gassed his people. His army invaded Kuwait and the US sent soldiers into Saudi Arabia to try to pressure Saddam to pull his soldiers out, but he didn’t. The US then invaded Kuwait and pushed out all of his forces in about a month. This war lasted for March of 2003 until 2011. The US entered Iraq because we knew Saddam Hussein was there. Some soldiers caught him in a hole, and he was hanged by the Iraq government. Saddam may have said he had nuclear weapons as a bluff so Iran, the country’s biggest enemy, didn’t attack them.
Cost=800 billion
Number of US military casualties: 4, 486
7. Discuss the situation in Iran.
United States started their program in 1957
Iran signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Now believed to be making weapons
Must dilute/get rid of uranium enriched over 5%
Could have made sure that they don’t transport it anywhere
8. What are some of the major problems the world is facing, what are the causes of these problems and what is being done to help solve these problems?
Eradicate Poverty/Hunger -
Halving the proportion of people with an income of $1.25 per day by 2015
Achieving full productive work for all, women and young people included
Halving the proportion of people living in hunger by 2015
Universal Primary Education-
All children go to elementary school before 2015
Education helps stop poverty
61% of those people are women not going to school
Gender Equality-
Provide equal opportunities/empower women
Middle East, Southern Africa have the biggest problems
Child Mortality-
Death of children before age 1
Children born into poor families are 5x more likely
Highest rate in Saharan: 1 in 10
Improving Maternal Health-
Health while pregnant/soon after birth
Reduce mortality by 3/4
Combat HIV/AIDS and Other Diseases-
No cure as of right now
Find a treatment by 2010
Still none found in 2011
More people being treated
Ensure Environmental Sustainability-
Reverse loss of environmental resources
stop deforestation
Africa/South America
Sanitation-
Halved proportion of people without clean water 5 years ahead of schedule
Proportion of people using clean water went up 80% since the 90s
40% of the people without clean water are in Sub-Saharan Africa
200 million of these people gained access to improved water sources, sanitation facilities or durable/less crowded housing
Global Partnerships-
Protect the trade
Get countries what they need but still make money on what they export
Address the needs of developing countries
Provide drugs and medicine
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