Tuesday, November 4, 2008
iPODs and blogging and texting, oh my!
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all of the candidates' talk about the need for change, Americans have seen plenty of it since the last time they selected a new leader.
Remember 2000, the millennium year? Americans were divided in a nasty election that wasn't settled for weeks after the voting ended.
Now, here we are again, with another bitter campaign for the presidency grinding to a close. The country is a far different place, in ways large and small, this time.
In 2000 the nation was at peace. The Cold War was over. Russia was a fledgling democracy. Terrorism happened somewhere else.
A year later, 911 changed from an emergency telephone number to a symbol that terrorism had arrived here at home.
And now the U.S. military is involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran and North Korea make threats. Russia is resurgent. Terrorists could lurk anywhere.
In 2000 the nation had a $247.7 billion surplus in the federal budget. Now it has a $454.8 billion budget deficit, the biggest in history.
War has cost billions, while political reluctance to raise taxes or cut spending increases deficits more and more.
Listen up to change. There were no iPODs in 2000. Apple's mini-music machines came on the market a year later. Today they are everywhere.
Blogs were brand new in 2000, growing to a thousand or so sites. Today the Blogosphere is a massive and closely watched media market for news, opinion, hoax, rumor, diatribe and every nuance in between. Blogs may number a hundred million or more.
The 2000 election was the first in which all major broadcast networks used the same color code on their maps -- red Republican, blue Democrat. That remains unchanged.
The unemployment rate in September 2000 was 3.9 percent. This September it was 6.1 percent. Many of them are probably keeping busy writing blogs.
In 2000 the population of the United States was 282 million. Today it's 305 million.
Hungry? How about a burger. From 2000 to 2006 (the most recent data available) the price of a pound of hamburger climbed from $1.63 to $2.26, and white bread rose from $1.36 to $1.62 a pound.
Plan on getting that burger at a drive-thru? Unleaded regular gas was $1.51 a gallon in 2000. Recently it's been dropping, but is still nearly double that.
Turning to big money, on Oct. 24, 2000 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,393.07. On Oct. 24, 2008 it closed at 8,378.95.
Feeling sporty? The St. Louis Rams were the defending Super Bowl champions in 2000. The current defending champs are the New York Giants.
Prefer to stay at home rather than go to a game? According to the Nielsen Company, the top television show of 2000 was "Survivor." Last year's winner was "American Idol."
"No Strings Attached" by 'N Sync was the top selling album in 2000; last year it was the soundtrack of "High School Musical 2."
For those who have the gas to go to the movies, the top movie box office in 2000 was "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Last year's top was "Spider Man 3."
And Nielsen now counts such things as top digitally downloaded songs, top markets to download music, top markets for text messaging, top Internet brands.
Good luck finding those ratings for eight years ago.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
