Environment

Nixon signed off on two bills in December 1970 EPA=Environmental protection agency-- sought to minimize air and water pollution OSHA= Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulated working conditions Both were perceived to be strangling industry by business lobbies Hooker Chemical and Plastics dumped tons of pollutants into the Love Canal, Carter authorized money for cleanup Significant because the Love Canal is near New York side of Niagara Falls, which was once a symbol of Am ericas clean environment The oil crunch undermined Americans faith in unlimited resources, so Carter and Nixon push ed for clean energy. In the darkest days of the Oil Crunch, Americans would have to wait hours to refuel their vehicles

Economics
Stagflationcombination of slow growth and inflation brought on by rising commodity (oil) prices and failed Keynesian projects of the 1960s Normally, economies undergo one or the other (demand pushes up prices) but rising prices were due to weak private sector that could not produce goods cheaply Nixon responded by stopping rising wages and de-linked the dollar to the gold standard, which undermined the Bretton Woods agreements in the Post WWII era Inflation led to popularity of Walmart and McDonalds because consumers could only afford very low priced products The spread of these stores generally led to a higher standard of living than Americans would have otherwise experienced because of the recession going on

Nuclear Power
As America moved away from oil as a power source because of its perceived scarcity, it witnessed several The nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island involved a partial nuclear meltdown that permanently put the plant out of service China Syndrome was a movie that showed a nuclear plant meltdown caused by Californian earthquakes These mainstream events, alongside the necessity to deal with nuclear waste severely mitigated nuclear powers momentum as an energy source in the United States, while it succeeded without the fear of destruction in countries like France

Women
NOW (1966) increased womens political influence Perceived Glass Ceiling that limited opportunities for women Congress passes equal rights amendment, but not enough states ratify it (only 35) by the deadline th Roe v. Wade argues that 14 Amendment Right to Privacy means abortion is allowed in the First Trimester Orthodox feminists split from the lesbian community that sought even more rights, and the Womens revolution slows down

Bakke v. U.S.
Supreme Court decides to allow Affirmative Action, meaning people can be accepted on the basis of race BUT they choose not to allow quotas, meaning a certain number of people of a certain race cant be required

The debate over Affirmative Action continues to this day, with many arguing that affirmative action disincentivizes hard work and is reverse-racism