3.

Inflation

     ¹In 1967, the average price of a three-bedroom house was $17,000. ²A brand-new Cadillac convertible went for $6,700. ³And a new Volkswagen sold for $1,497. ⁴A typewriter cost $39. ⁵A man's gray flannel suit could be purchased for $69. ⁶A gallon of regular gasoline cost 39 cents. ⁷Two decades later, these items rose in price by four times. ⁸This sharp rise in price is known as inflation.

     ⁹The rise in inflation started when Lyndon Johnson decided to fight the Vietnam War without raising enough taxes to pay for it. ¹⁰By 1968, the war was costing the United States $3 billion a month.

     ¹¹High inflation wiped out many families' savings. ¹²It created labor problems when teachers, autoworkers, and others went on strike for higher salaries. ¹³They needed higher salaries to keep up with the cost of inflation. ¹⁴For over ten years, family wages remained the same, yet inflation raised the prices of nearly all goods and services. ¹⁵The prices of health care and houses rose far above the rate of inflation. ¹⁶The results were hard on many Americans. ¹⁷Many could not afford heath insurance, and there was a sharp rise in homelessness.

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     ¹In his western novel The Virginian, written in 1903, Owen Wister described a scene in Wyoming: ²"We passed the ramparts (walls) of Medicine Bow—thick heaps and fringes of tin cans, and shelving mounds of bottles cast out of saloons." ³By the 1960s, automobile graveyards marred the beauty of the landscape. ⁴Today, disposal of solid waste is a pressing problem in many cities. ⁵New York City's only working landfill takes in 25,000 tons of garbage every day, and it will soon be the highest point on the East Coast south of Maine.

Implied main idea:  

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.