The United States on the World Stage - Essay Example

Successful as these programs were for America during its time, one cannot help but wonder as to whether things would have turned out for the better or worst for America if these programs had not been successfully implemented. Let's start with a look at the era of “Reaganomics” and what America might have been like had it not been implemented at all. Reaganomics was based on the program of governance that balance the national budget and created savings for the country by implementing 4 basic steps: “(1) Cut tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth , (2) Spending reductions , (3), Anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth compared to demand, to maintain a stronger, more stable dollar value. (4) Deregulation, which saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices.

“ (Ferrera,2011) The system worked in the 80's for the American population and the budget cuts resulted in a surplus of treasury savings which the Clinton administration inherited. It prevented the downward spiral of the economy and allowed the treasury time to recover and earn the taxes needed to cover the national debts (“The Second American Revolution: Reaganomics”). . Life became harder for everyone under Reaganomics while before it was implemented, life was alright for most American families.

There are those who believe that if Reaganomics had not been implemented, the United States would have gone one of two ways, died economically due to the cost of inflation and the eventual inability of the United States to pay its debts or, continued on its “life is still affordable” trend that the typical American family was experiencing. Maybe the time of single income families sending their kids off to affordable colleges and universities would still be norm these days instead of student loans and a generation of high school graduates who can't afford college.

That is if the taxes were continuing to become higher in rates would eventually stop rising and increasing the costs of basic goods. So maybe, just maybe, the country is somehow better off than if Reaganomics did not exist. Otherwise, the public would not know that there is another way of cutting the debt and balancing the national budget than the constantly increasing government revenue collections that the Obama administration strongly advocates. Then we have the “End of the Cold War” to consider.

The end of the cold war marked a sort of unification in Europe that allowed tensions between the democratic and socialist European countries to find a platform of peace and camaraderie with one another (Mearshimer, 1990). However, it would seem that the unification of Europe under the Euro, which would not have happened had the cold war not ended, has resulted in more problems for the united European economy that expected. Pres. Ronald Reagan is viewed by the Americans as the man who brought peace to Europe and ended the cold war.