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Wikipedia
Contemporary era
Under President George H. W. Bush, the United States took a lead role in the UN–sanctioned Gulf War. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the Bill Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble.[43] A civil lawsuit and sex scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained in office. The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in American history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision—George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City andThe Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the global War on Terror. In October 2001, U.S. forces led an invasion of Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgentscontinue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime changein Iraq on controversial grounds.[44] Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit UN mandate for military intervention, Bush organized a Coalition of the Willing; coalition forces preemptivelyinvaded Iraq in 2003, removing dictator Saddam Hussein. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. On November 4, 2008, amid a global economic recession the first African American, Barack Obama, was elected president. In 2010, major health care and financial system reforms were enacted. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that year became the largest peacetime oil disaster in history.[45]
Government and elections
Main articles: Federal government of the United States, state governments of the United States, and elections in the United States
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic andrepresentative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected bylaw."[46] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local; thelocal government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels.
The federal government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
- Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
- Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned by state. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.
The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has aunicameral legislature. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.
All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution is voided. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states.Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases.Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights.
Parties, ideology, and politics
Main articles: Politics of the United States and Political ideologies in the United States
The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate—former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or "conservative" and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or "liberal". The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the Southand parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative.
The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president. All previous presidents were men of solely European descent. The 2010 midterm elections saw the Republican Party take control of the House and make gains in the Senate, where the Democrats retain the majority. In the 112th United States Congress, the Senate comprises 51 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 47 Republicans; the House comprises 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats. There are 29 Republican and 20 Democratic state governors, as well as one independent.
Political divisions
Main article: U.S. state
Further information: Territorial evolution of the United States and United States territorial acquisitions
The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country's history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions comprises Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was an independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The states do not have the right to secede from the union.
The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the two other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also possesses five major overseas territories: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the major territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship. American citizens residing in the territories have many of the same rights and responsibilities as citizens residing in the states; however, they are generally exempt from federal income tax, may not vote for president, and have onlynonvoting representation in the U.S. Congress.[47]
Foreign relations and military
Main articles: Foreign policy of the United States and United States armed forces
The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters. It is a member of the G8, G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many haveconsulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, Sudan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[48] and strong ties withCanada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Israel. It works closely with fellowNATO members on military and security issues and with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2008, the United States spent a net $25.4 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. As a share of gross national income (GNI), however, the U.S. contribution of 0.18% ranked last among twenty-two donor states. In contrast, private overseas giving by Americans is relatively generous.[49]
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The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in time of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty. TheReserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[50]
Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System. American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. The military operates 865 bases and facilities abroad,[51] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.[52] The extent of this global military presence has prompted some scholars to describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases."[53]
Total U.S. military spending in 2008, more than $600 billion, was over 41% of global military spending and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. The per capita spending of $1,967 was about nine times the world average; at 4% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top fifteen military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[54] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2011, $549 billion, is a 3.4% increase over 2010 and 85% higher than in 2001; an additional $159 billion is proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[55] As of September 2010, the United States is scheduled to have 96,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan, and 50,000 to Iraq.[56] As of January 5, 2011, the United States had suffered 4,432 military fatalities during the Iraq War,[57] and 1,448 during the War in Afghanistan.[58]
Economy
Main article: Economy of the United States
| Economic indicators | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment | 9.0% (January 2011) | [59] |
| GDP growth | 3.4% (4Q 2010), 2.8% (Whole of 2010) [+2.9% (2010)] | [60] |
| CPI inflation | 1.1% (November 2009 – November 2010) | [61] |
| Poverty | 14.3% (2009) | [62] |
| Public debt | $13.87 trillion (December 30, 2010) | [63] |
| Household net worth | $54.2 trillion (4Q 2009) | [64] |
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.[65] According to theInternational Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $14.870 trillion constitutes 24% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and almost 21% of the gross world product atpurchasing power parity (PPP).[3] It has the largest national GDP in the world, though it is about 5% less than the GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2008. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP.[3]
The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2008, the total U.S. trade deficit was $696 billion.[66] Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners.[67] In 2007, vehicles constituted both the leading import and leading export commodity.[68] Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt, having surpassed China in early 2010.[69] The United States ranks second in the Global Competitiveness Report.[70]
In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 55.3% of the economy, with federal government activity accounting for 24.1% and state and local government activity (including federal transfers) the remaining 20.6%.[71] The economy is postindustrial, with the service sector contributing 67.8% of GDP, though the United States remains an industrial power.[72] The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is manufacturing.[73] Chemical products are the leading manufacturing field.[74] The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer.[75] It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP,[72] the United States is the world's top producer of corn[76] and soybeans.[77] The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume.[78]
In August 2010, the American labor force comprised 154.1 million people. With 21.2 million people, government is the leading field of employment. The largest private employment sector is health care and social assistance, with 16.4 million people.[59] About 12% of workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe.[79] The World Bank ranks the United States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers.[80] In 2009, the United States had the third highest labor productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway. It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands.[81] Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income tax rates are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption tax rates are lower.[82]
Income and human development
Main article: Income in the United States
See also: Income inequality in the United States, Poverty in the United States, and Affluence in the United States
According to the United States Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2007 was $49,777. The median ranged from $65,469 among Asian American households to $32,584 among African American households.[62] Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, the overall median is similar to the most affluent cluster of developed nations. After declining sharply during the middle of the 20th century,poverty rates have plateaued since the early 1970s, with 11–15% of Americans below the poverty line every year, and 58.5% spending at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25 and 75.[83][84] In 2009, 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty.[62]
The U.S. welfare state is one of the least extensive in the developed world, reducing both relative poverty and absolute poverty by considerably less than the mean for rich nations,[85][86] though combined private and public social expenditures per capita are higher than in any of the Nordic countries.[87] While the American welfare state does well in reducing poverty among the elderly,[88] the young receive relatively little assistance.[89] A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations ranked the United States next to last.[90]
Despite strong increases in productivity, low unemployment, and low inflation, income gains since 1980 have been slower than in previous decades, less widely shared, and accompanied by increased economic insecurity. Between 1947 and 1979, real median income rose by over 80% for all classes, with the incomes of poor Americans rising faster than those of the rich.[91][92] Median household income has increased for all classes since 1980,[93] largely owing to more dual-earner households, the closing of the gender gap, and longer work hours, but growth has been slower and strongly tilted toward the very top (see graph).[85][91][94] Consequently, the share of income of the top 1%—21.8% of total reported income in 2005—has more than doubled since 1980,[95] leaving the United States with the greatest income inequality among developed nations.[85][96] The top 1% pays 27.6% of all federal taxes; the top 10% pays 54.7%.[97] Wealth, like income, is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share among developed nations.[98] The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth.[99]
Science and technology
Main article: Science and technology in the United States
The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. Nikola Tesla pioneered alternating current, the AC motor, and radio. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Fordpromoted the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.[100]
The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein andEnrico Fermi, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the Manhattan Projectdeveloped nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers. The United States largely developed theARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Today, the bulk of research and development funding, 64%, comes from the private sector.[101] The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor.[102] Americans possess high levels of technological consumer goods,[103] and almost half of U.S. households have broadband Internet access.[104] The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food, representing half of the world's biotech crops.[105]
Transportation
Everyday personal transportation in the United States is dominated by the automobile driving on one of 13 million roads.[107] As of 2003, there were 759 automobiles per 1,000 Americans, compared to 472 per 1,000 inhabitants of the European Union the following year.[108] About 40% ofpersonal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks.[109] The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes driving every day, traveling 29 miles (47 km).[110]
The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned, while most major airports are publicly owned. The four largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are American; Southwest Airlines is number one.[111] Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.[112] While transport of goods by rail is extensive, relatively few people use rail to travel, within or between cities.[113] Mass transit accounts for 9% of total U.S. work trips, compared to 38.8% in Europe.[114] Bicycle usage is minimal, well below European levels.[115]
Energy
See also: Energy policy of the United States
The United States energy market is 29,000 terawatt hours per year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8 tons of oil equivalent per year, compared to Germany's 4.2 tons and Canada's 8.3 tons. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources.[117] The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum.[118] For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries, in part due to public perception in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed.[119]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of the United States
| Race/Ethnicity (2008)[120] | |
|---|---|
| White | 79.8% |
| Black | 12.8% |
| Asian | 4.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.0% |
| Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |
| Hispanic (of any race) | 15.4% |
The 2010 U.S. Census reported 308,745,538 residents; the U.S. Census Bureau's Population Clock projects the country's population now to be 312,083,000,[121] including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants.[122]The third most populous nation in the world, after China and India, the United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.[123] With a birth rate of 13.82 per 1,000, 30% below the world average, its population growth rate is 0.98%, significantly higher than those of Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea.[124] In fiscal year 2009, 1.1 million immigrants were granted legal residence.[125] Mexico has been the leading source of new residents for over two decades; since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year.[126]
The United States has a very diverse population—thirty-one ancestry groupshave more than one million members.[127] White Americans are the largestracial group; German Americans, Irish Americans, and English Americansconstitute three of the country's four largest ancestry groups.[127] African Americans are the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group.[120][127] Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.[127] In 2008, the U.S. population included an estimated 4.9 million people with some American Indian or Alaskan natives ancestry (3.1 million exclusively of such ancestry) and 1.1 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific islandancestry (0.6 million exclusively).[120]
The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 46.9 million Americans of Hispanic descent[120] are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are ofMexican descent.[128] Between 2000 and 2008, the country's Hispanic population increased 32% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.3%.[120] Much of this growth is from immigration; as of 2007, 12.6% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America.[129] Fertility is also a factor; the average Hispanic woman gives birth to 3.0 children in her lifetime, compared to 2.2 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement rate of 2.1).[123] Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau, all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constitute 34% of the population; they are projected to be the majority by 2042.[130]
About 82% of Americans live in urban areas (as defined by the Census Bureau, such areas include the suburbs);[1] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[131] In 2008, 273 incorporated places had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).[132] There are fifty-two metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million.[133] Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, forty-seven are in the West or South.[134] The metro areas of Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix all grew by more than a million people between 2000 and 2008.[133]
Language
Main article: Languages of the United States
See also: Language Spoken at Home (U.S. Census)
| Languages (2007)[136] | |
|---|---|
| English (only) | 225.5 million |
| Spanish, incl.Creole | 34.5 million |
| Chinese | 2.5 million |
| French, incl. Creole | 2.0 million |
| Tagalog | 1.5 million |
| Vietnamese | 1.2 million |
| German | 1.1 million |
| Korean | 1.1 million |
English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2007, about 226 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[136][137] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.[5] Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[138]
While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[139] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[140] Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan andChamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.
Religion
Main article: Religion in the United States
See also: History of religion in the United States, Freedom of religion in the United States, Separation of church and state in the United States, and List of religious movements that began in the United States
The United States is officially a secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance. In a 2002 study, 59% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives," a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation.[141] According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian,[142] down from 86.4% in 1990.[143] Protestantdenominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination. The study categorizes white evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest religious cohort;[142] another study estimates evangelicals of all races at 30–35%.[144] The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2007 was 4.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990.[143]The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism(0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).[142] The survey also reported that 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.[142][143]
Education
Main article: Education in the United States
American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten orfirst grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[145] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[146]
The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges with open admission policies. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned abachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[147] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[1][148] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.[149]
Health
See also: Health care in the United States, Health care reform in the United States, and Health insurance in the United States
The United States life expectancy of 77.8 years at birth[150] is a year shorter than the overall figure in Western Europe, and three to four years lower than that of Norway, Switzerland, and Canada.[151] Over the past two decades, the country's rank in life expectancy has dropped from 11th to 42nd in the world.[152] The infant mortality rate of 6.37 per thousand likewise places the United States 42nd out of 221 countries, behind all of Western Europe.[153] Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight;[154] the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century.[155] Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by health care professionals.[156]
The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is nearly four times that of France and five times that of Germany.[158] Abortion, legal on demand, is highly controversial. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate a waiting period. While the abortion rate is falling, the abortion ratio of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations.[159]
The U.S. health care system far outspends any other nation's, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP.[160] The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. health care system in 2000 as first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance. The United States is a leader in medical innovation. In 2004, the nonindustrial sector spent three times as much as Europe per capita on biomedical research.[161]
Unlike in all other developed countries, health care coverage in the United States is not universal. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditures, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal, state, and local governments paid for 44%.[162] In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, 15.9% of the population, were uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The main cause of this rise is the drop in the number of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance.[163] The subject of uninsured and underinsured Americans is a major political issue.[164] A 2009 study estimated that lack of insurance is associated with nearly 45,000 deaths a year.[165] In 2006,Massachusetts became the first state to mandate universal health insurance.[166] Federal legislation passed in early 2010 will create a near-universal health insurance system around the country by 2014.
Crime and law enforcement
Main articles: Law enforcement in the United States and Crime in the United States
See also: Law of the United States, Incarceration in the United States, and Capital punishment in the United States
Law enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well as certain appeals from the state systems.
Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence andhomicide.[167] In 2007, there were 5.6 murders per 100,000 persons,[168] three times the rate in neighboring Canada.[169] The U.S. homicide rate, which decreased by 42% between 1991 and 1999, has been roughly steady since.[168] Gun ownership rights are the subject ofcontentious political debate.
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate[170] and total prison population[171] in the world. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults.[172] The current rate is about seven times the 1980 figure.[173]African American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males.[170] In 2006, the U.S. incarceration rate was over three times the figure in Poland, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with the next highest rate.[174] The country's high rate of incarceration is largely due to sentencing and drug policies.[170][175]
Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and in thirty-six states. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a four-year moratorium, there have been more than 1,000 executions.[176] In 2006, the country had the sixth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan.[177] In 2007, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the 1976 Supreme Court decision, followed by New Mexico in 2009.
Culture
Main articles: Culture of the United States and Society of the United States
See also: Social class in the United States
The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[6][178] Aside from the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.[179] The culture held in common by most Americans—mainstream American culture—is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such astraditions brought by slaves from Africa.[6][180] More recent immigration from Asia and especiallyLatin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizingmelting pot and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.[6]
According to Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions analysis, the United States has the highestindividualism score of any country studied.[181] While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[182] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[183] The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism.[184] Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree.[185] While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.[186] Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants, various studies indicate that the United States has less social mobility than Canada and the Nordic countries.[187]
Women now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.[188] In 2007, 58% of Americans age 18 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 25% had never been married.[189] Same-sex marriage is contentious. Some states permit civil unions in lieu of marriage. Since 2003, several states have permitted gay marriage as the result of judicial or legislative action, while voters in more than a dozen states have barred the practice via referendum.
Popular media
Main articles: Cinema of the United States, Television in the United States, and Music of the United States
The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, usingThomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited as the greatest film of all time.[190] American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and moviemerchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood have produced the most commercially successful movies in history, such as Star Wars (1977) and Titanic (1997), and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.[191]
Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world,[192] and the average viewing time continues to rise, reaching five hours a day in 2006.[193] The four major broadcast networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day.[194] Aside from web portals and search engines, the most popular websites are Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Blogger, eBay, and Craigslist.[195]
The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African American music have deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century.Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the mid-1950s pioneers of rock and roll. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's most celebrated songwriters andJames Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.[196]
Literature, philosophy, and the arts
Main articles: American literature, Visual arts of the United States, and American classical music
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an essential American poet.[197] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel."[198]
Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993.William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway are often named among the most influential writers of the 20th century.[199] Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fictiondeveloped in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up new literary approaches, as have postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.
The transcendentalists, led by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, established the first majorAmerican philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Sanders Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the 20th century, the work of W. V. O. Quine and Richard Rorty, built upon by Noam Chomsky, brought analytic philosophy to the fore of U.S. academics. John Rawls and Robert Nozick led a revival of political philosophy.
In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The realist paintings ofThomas Eakins are now widely celebrated. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[200] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles, displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.
One of the first major promoters of American theater was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hartproduced a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the late 1870s. In the 20th century, the modern musical form emerged on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards. PlaywrightEugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936; other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.
Though largely overlooked at the time, Charles Ives's work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition; other experimentalists such as Henry Cowell andJohn Cage created a distinctive American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland andGeorge Gershwin developed a new synthesis of popular and classical music. ChoreographersIsadora Duncan and Martha Graham helped create modern dance, while George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in 20th century ballet. Americans have long been important in the modern artistic medium of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S. innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero, has become an American icon.[201]
Food
Mainstream American cuisine is similar to that in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important.
Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.[202] Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.[203] During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;[202] frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular; sugared beverages account for 9% of the average American's caloric intake.[204]
Sports
Main article: Sports in the United States
Since the late 19th century, baseball has been regarded as the national sport; American football,basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport.[205] Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are popular as well.
While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfingarose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. EightOlympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country,[206] and 253 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.[207]
Measurement systems
Main article: Metrication in the United States
The country retains United States customary units, constituted largely by British imperial units such as yards, miles, and degrees Fahrenheit. Distinct units include the U.S. gallon and pint volume measurements. The United States is one of three countries, along withBurma and Liberia, that has not officially adopted the metric system. However, metric units are increasingly used in science, medicine, and many industrial fields.[208]
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