Sources of Fear in the Seventies and Early Eighties in the United States
- Part 1
* Political
Collapse
- Watergate
-> cheesiness
of Nixon's criminality made politician look like little more than
gangsters
- Vietnam
-> for many
Americans the war seemed pointless
-> for many
Americans the failure to properly prosecute the war seemed an expression
of weakness of
will
-> inability of
the democratic process to stop a deeply unpopular war was troubling
-> Nixon repeatedly lied about his
intention to bring "peace with honor"
-> secret
bombing of Cambodia
-> young people
were burning draft cards
-> the national
guard was shooting down unarmed students
- Southern politics were under court watch as
Civil Rights were imposed
- Northern and Western politics facing
uncomfortable reality that race mattered in
politics out of
the South as well
- many cities were overspent and/or
undertaxed
* Racial
Tension
- the "easy" victories of Civil
Rights provided little peace
-> voting
rights and civil rights did not make America suddenly equal
-> African-Americans wanted real
progress: jobs, education, wealth, etc.
- many new spin-off rights movements
-> Asian, Pacific Islander,
Hispanic/Latino/Chicano groups all wanted rights
-> white pride
and White Power movements forming in reaction
- integration put people of color and Whites
in close contact
-> racial
fights in the schools and neighborhoods
- Note: There was much good, but these were the
negatives coming of fear
* Economic
unease
- continuing costs of Vietnam and the Cold
War stressed the budget
-> US hadn't run a budget surplus in
more than a decade
- taxes and the Great Society
-> new social
programs designed to alleviate poverty were expensive
=> America was somewhat committed to
the "War on Poverty"
=> new
schools and opportunities for kids of color were expensive
- income and other taxes going up
-> feds, states, and cities all needed
more money
- Oil Embargoes
-> US had long since become a net
importer of oil
-> a large
slice of the available oil came from the Middle East, which was riven by
tensions over
Israel
- oil embargoes in 1972 and 1979
-> OPEC was getting richer and more
powerful as a result of oil's increasing
dominance
-> the US was
punished for support of Israel
-> in '79 price
of a barrel of oil went from $16 to $40 (highest real price until 2008)
=> already
stressed, American families got slammed
- stagflation
-> the US had
stopped growing quickly for various reasons
=> taxes
sucked at economic flexibility of individuals and businesses
=> government borrowing drove up interest rates, creating
less oppotunity to
borrow
-> inflation
also spiking
=> growing
world demand associated with poverty alleviation drove up prices of
basic
goods
=> oil embargo pushed prices up
=> government
spending over-stimulated the demand side of the economy
- normal Americans were broke, unemployed,
and hopeless
Next up, in
Part 2:
* Cults and
Urban Terrorism
* Drugs and
tune-out culture
* Crime
wave of the seventies and eighties
* Decline
of US economic dominance
* Massive
changes in work and labor brought about by computers and industrial robots