What_Made_the_80's_Important

The 1980’s marked a time of change. There was technological advances, the pop culture idea changed and many political changes. Change is what made the 1980’s so important. The 1980’s was a start of a new era. Some of the changes involved music like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and a new sound of rock and roll like Poison and Cindy Lauper. During the 1980’s there was unfortunately the assignation of John Lennon and two attempt assassinations including the Pope and President Ronald Reagan. In 1981 Ronald Reagan was our fortieth president of the United States. Before Reagan went into his presidency he was a well known actor. Reagan won the election in 1981, and he was the oldest president to be elected at the age of sixty nine. Two months after becoming our president there was and assassination attempt by John W. Hinkley Jr. who shot Reagan. Reagan survived and was to be president till 1989. Reagan was named the great communicator because he was a great public speaker and gave citizens hope.( Rosenberg) Reagan developed a system of economic plans called Reaganomics. Even today he is in history as one of our favorite presidents. During the years 1981-1989 Ronald Reagan, once an actor was our 40th president. During his presidency he created a economic plan called Reaganomics. The plan was to have a widespread tax cuts among the nation. Also it was suppose to limit social spending and increase military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets. The four points or goals of this economic plan was to reduce the increase of government spending, reduce the marginal tax rates, reduce regulation and finally to reduce inflation by controlling money supply growth.(Niskanen) Three major legislations that came from Reaganomics to achieve these goals were Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, and Tax Reform Act of 1986. (InvestorWords) The Economic Recovery Tax Act or ERTA was a law that reduced income tax rates and provided businesses with incentives. This law eventually increased the federal budget deficit which led to some of the ERTA acts to be reviewed and reversed in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act in 1982.(InesterWords) The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of TEFRA reversed some of the tax cuts from the ERTA. Also the TEFRA increased the tax rate and wage base for the unemployment tax. (InvesterWords) The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was designed to level the playing field. It curbed tax shelters, eliminated the special treatment for capital gains, and lowered corporate tax rates. It brought the average marginal tax rates (AMTR) on labor and capital income closer together. (D. Garson) The federal spending average went for 4.0% to 2.5% which was the only thing the improved significantly.(Niskanen) The fiscal record only reflected in moderation and there were no reductions in other domestic programs.(Niskanen) Reagan did not achieve a significant reduction in federal spending. In 1981 its was 22.9, then it started to increase but decreased down to 22.1 in 1989 which wasn’t so impressive to Reagan’s supporters.(Niskanen) The top marginal tax rate for individual income was at 70% an dropped to 28% and the corporate rate was at 48% but the dropped to 34%(Niskanen) The tax treatment of business tax income hd a total reversal. Lower tax rates and a broader tax base for both individuals and business reduced the federal revenue share of GDP from 20.2 percent in fiscal 1981 to 19.2 percent in fiscal 1989. (Niskanen) During Reagan’s presidency him and his wife Nancy Reagan, were very involved with teens. The “Just Say No” campaign was a reach out to young adults on saying no to a problem that was becoming very big. Nancy Reagan started creating PSA or Public Service Announcements with famous and popular movies stars. Some popular people who were involved with these PSA were Clint Eastwood, Ally Sheedy, Olivia Newton John, and PeeWee Herman. Also she would use popular television shows like Saved by the Bell and Different Strokes. These PSA used many sayings the most popular were “ The Thrill Can Kill” and “Crack Kills”. Also in the PSA they would show the actor or actress holding a vile of crack or whatever drug they were talking about at the time. Nancy Reagan was serious about the public being aware to drugs. She even used children shows like Punky for example. Even though Nancy Reagan had all this media promoting public awareness for drugs the “Just Say No” campaign didn’t work. Why did it not work' Studies show that telling children to say No isn’t effective because its somewhat of a motivation like having a door say do not enter or a button saying don’t push. According to Dr. Dean Edell it wasn’t effective because Mrs. Reagan didn’t give any information about drugs to children and without the pros and cons there more curious to try it. (Edell) For over thirty years the United States and the Soviet Union were in a war, The Cold War. It was called The Cold War because there was not an actual war on a battlefield with weapons or attacks but a race of technology. .(why is it called cold war') Also the United States were fighting to keep the Soviets from spreading communism. In 1983 the United States military invaded a small island named Grenada because they heard of Cuba’s presence. The United States was in a rivalry with Cuba because the soviets had hid their missiles in Cuba. Then, in 1985 the war ended. .(invasion of Grenada) After it ended the INF treaty was signed. It was signed by Ronald Reagan president of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union. The INF treaty reduced the amount of nuclear missiles in both countries. Years after the signing of the INF ironically Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev actually became good friends and talked often. .(INF treaty) One of the most important events of the 1980’s was the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was built on August 5th 1961 when the open border between West Berlin and East Berlin was shut off. For twenty nine years there was no way to get over this wall. If you had family in East Berlin and you lived in West Berlin there was no way to see them or contact them. While West Berlin was more advanced East Berliners were less fortunate. In 1987 president Ronald Reagan went to Germany at the Brandenburg Gate to tell Germans in his famous speech to become one and tear down the Berlin Wall. In this speech he stated one of his most famous quotes “Mr. Gorbachev, tear this wall down!”. Two years later the Berlin Wall was reopened. The Berlin Wall was taken down in many ways. One was when angry mobs took them down with hammers and chisels.( Burkhardt) An important woman in politics during the 1980’s was Geraldine Ferraro. Mrs. Ferraro was the first woman vice president candidate. Mrs. Ferraro was also a democrat. This is an extreme step forward in history of politics considering the past events women have been through just to be considered equal to men. Also, in the 1980’s there were major disaster that contributed to the importance of the 1980s decade for example, on October 19th 1987 there was a stock market crash in which the Dow Jones industrial average was reduced 22.6%.(Black Monday) This stock market crash was called Black Monday. Black Monday was noted to be the largest single day drop in history. On March 24th 1989 in Alaska there was an oil spilled call Exxon Valdez. 260,000-750,000 barrels of crude oil spilled. This was considered one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters. .(Exxon Valdez oil spill) To help farmers in the United states farm aid held a benefit concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise money. This concert was held on September 22nd 1985.This concert was important because it started a phenomenon of having concerts to help a cause which we often do in present day. .(farm aid) During the 1980s there was a significant increase of illegal immigrants coming to the United States from Mexico. Even to this day we have problems at the borders between Mexico and the United States with illegal immigrants jumping the border to come the America. It wasn’t until 1981 when one of the most horrific disease came to be common. AIDS was a disease of the immune system caused by transmission through blood products that enter through sexual conduct or needles. 85% of people diagnosed with AIDS were aged 20-49. .(AIDS timeline) Though televisions were already a big part of peoples life, in 1980 there was a new channel which provided twenty four hour news coverage. This station was called CNN. The CNN news channel was founded by Ted Turner. CNN is still a highly watched television channel. .(Turner) Another very important channel that was started in the 1980’s was MTV or music television. Though it was pop culture it was a big part of peoples life. MTV allowed music videos to be played continually. The very first song and video to be played on MTV in 1981 was “video killed the radio star” by the Buggles. For thirty years now MTV has been a huge part of teenagers life and has been turned on in their homes. An essential part of the 1980’s was an increase of technology, in fact there was a technological revolution. In 1981 the International Business Machines Corp or IBM launched it’s first Personal Computer or PC. (IBM personal computer) Computers gave people the option to do work with or for recreational use. Along with computers another convenient invention came about. In 1984 cell phones came to be sold to the public. Cell phones were a big accomplishment as they were portable and good for emergencies. Before 1980 to listen to your music you had to have an 8-track or a cassette tape and cassette player. Introduced in the early 1980’s was the Compact Discs or CD’s. One convenience of a CD over a cassette is with a cassette you have to flip it over to listen to more music where with a CD it plays straight through. A common pass time for young kids was to go to the arcade to play games. The 1980’s was a time when the most popular thing at an arcade was to play the video games. The most popular games were space invaders along with Pac man. Also space shuttles became a big event. NASA’s goal was to create a reusable craft for the transportation of space cargo.(Greene) This started in the 1970’s but didn’t become reality until the launch of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981. The in 1982 only a year later the Challenger was made and ready to launch.(Greene) Unfortunately January 28, 1986 was the day the Challenger would fail. The space shuttle carried seven crew members that day including Sharon Christa McAuliffe the first teacher to go in space.(Greene) The explosion happened in the first 73 seconds in the launch sequence of the Challenger. Before the explosion that day the Challenger made nine complete successful missions.(Greene) But before the Challenger there was the Columbia, the first space shuttle to fly into Earth’s orbit in 1981. (Dumoulin) The Columbia was named after the fleet that Robert Gray and his crew maneuvered past the dangerous sandbar at the mouth of what is today south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and the Washington-Oregon border. (Dumoulin) The Columbia completed and total of 23 missions and eight of them were from 1981 to 1986. One famous supreme court case during the 1980s was Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. In October of 1987 former high school students who were members of the school newspaper filed a law suit in Federal Court against school officials and the school district arguing that their First Amendment right of freedom of speech was disturbed. They felt when two pages of the newspaper they wrote were deleted that they were taken of their rights. These two pages contained articles describing teen pregnancy along with students experiences with parental divorce and how the divorce has effected them. The newspaper was edited in a journalism class in the school and the teacher of the journalism class sent the paper down to the principles office and the principle felt the need to delete the two pages. The principle felt the references to sexual activity and birth control were inappropriate for the younger students in the school who also read the newspaper. The writers of the newspaper felt that they had the right to say what they wanted because of the first amendment so they debated in court. One year later the supreme court sided with the Hazelwood School District in saying that the censorship did not violate their right the First Amendment freedom of speech. (Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier) Another famous Supreme Court case was New Jersey v. TLO. In 1985 at Piscataway High school in New Jersey two underage girls were smoking cigarettes in the bathroom. The teacher that caught them took them down to the principles office and he confronted the two girls. One girl confessed to smoking but TLO denied that she ever smoked. The principle demanded TLO to open her purse and when she refused the principle took it and went through it. They found a pack of cigarettes, a pipe, rolling papers, marijuana, large amounts of money and two letters that indicate TLO was involved in a drug sale.(Infoplease) TLO confessed to selling marijuana on the school grounds. She was sentenced to one year probation. But the State Supreme Court overturned the decision saying that her fourth amendments rights were violated. The State Supreme Court asked to hear the Supreme Courts appeal. The Supreme Court was in favor of New Jersey, Justice Byron White said “rights of children and adolescents are not the same as those of adults and that school officials have a responsibility to maintain the discipline necessary for education.” (Infoplease) In conclusion, the 1980’s had significant events that marked this decade as important. Whether it be the Berlin Wall falling after twenty nine years or the beginning of a deadly disease. Also, within this decade Americans had one influential president. From 1981- 1989 Ronald Reagan kept the nation controlled and well run in the opinion of many Americans. Overall, The 1980’s was a very advanced decade.