America and the New Millennium Cultural and Technological Advancements in the New Millennium

By the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. population grows more diverse both in ethnic background and in age.

By 2010, the census reported over 300 million Americans

Increased Lifespan for aging Americans - median age increases because of medical breakthroughs and healthier lifestyles - the U.S. government must increase spending on Medicare - Medicare pays medical expenses for elderly Americans - the Social Security system has to pay more in retirement benefits. -the government and many citizens feel this must be restructured to avoid paying more than takes in in future

- People move from the cities to the suburbs in what is know as urban flight. Suburbs becomes more prosperous because of the increase in their tax base - Many businesses trail the “urban flight” populous to see higher profits for their companies - Restoration of urban property leads to lower income citizens being displaced

The U.S. saw a huge increase in immigration As a result, Proposition 187 was passed which cut education, health benefits to illegal immigrants

The Internet was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense. The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for billions of bits of information to be received every minute.

In the early 1990s, the World Wide Web was developed, in large part, for commercial purposes. The educational system in our country greatly improved because of the internet.

the dot- com bubble occurred approximately from 1997 to 2000 The period was marked by the founding of a group of new Internet- based companies

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events and conditions that led to the late-2000s financial crisis characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.

Environmentalists observed the diminishing of rainforests and global warming trends. Disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 and rising gasoline prices in 2000 illustrated America's embarrassing dependency on fossil fuels and the ecological and economic havoc that resulted.