Issues facing the U.S in the 21st Century (Essay Sample)

Jackline Ngala
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What do you think are the biggest issues of the USA in the 21st century?
The United States of America (USA) has undergone major revolutions in the 20th and 21st century. There is irrefutable evidence that these changes have placed the USA as a world super-power. However, as the country developed, so did the challenges of growth and development. While the American citizens are enjoying the fruits of these changes, they are also faced with a wealth of new and challenging problems every day. The USA is poised at the brink of a severe socio-economic, political, and environmental crisis, which reduce the quality of life. This essay discusses the three biggest issues of the USA in the 21st century, with a focus on obesity, global warming, and huge national debt.
Obesity, a condition characterized by accumulation of excess body fat to pathological levels, is a nutritional health problem that has reached epidemic levels in the USA. Corpus evidence cites obesity as the number one cause of morbidity in USA (Polikandrioti & Stefanou 133). According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2003 and 2013, obesity in the USA increased by 50%. Poor lifestyle and nutritional choices are the main attributed cause of obesity, which is claiming thousands of lives annually. Economically, the government is spending a lot of resources on the treatment of obesity. The Americans need to take preventive measures like physical activity and change in eating habits in order to fight this war against obesity. Health awareness programs must also be put in place.
Global warming, caused by human actions like pollution and release of Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, has put the USA in a state of environmental emergency. Global warming has caused a rise in earth surface and oceans’ temperatures, causing the ice caps to melt and increase the water levels (Darwall 12). It has resulted to a colossal influx of changing weather patterns and natural disasters like excess snow, floods, and desertification. The 2005 Hurricane Katrina, regarded as the most costly natural disaster in the USA history, claimed 1,836 lives and caused a damage of $108 billion (Brennan 6). Recycling, environmental policy changes against pollution, and use of energy-efficient appliances could help reduce global warming.
The national debt is another major problem facing the USA. Hill lists five main causes for the huge national debt in USA. These are the high military spending, the Medicare spending, the Bush tax cuts, 2007 financial crisis, and Obama economic stimulus. Substantial $1.3 trillion has gone to fund the war in Afghanistan and Iraq (Hill 32). The economic stimulation project cost the country $800 billion while the Medicare cost $300 billion (Hill 34). The most significant, the Bush tax cuts, caused a $1.6 trillion increase to the national debt (Minsky 21). To resolve this issue, there is a need for policy change and a reorganization of federal spending priorities.
A change in the USA is inevitable. All the above main ...