25 years from now, what do you think America will be like?

[deutsey]

[sinkingfeeling]

1. At this point, I'm not 100% certain that America will exist.

[Imagevision]

2. 2 classes - the elite rich and the poor.

[baldguy]

21. A few thousand über-rich, hundreds of millions of destitute poor....

...with a couple million middle-class. Think of the worst cyberpunk dystopias you've read, and put yourself at the bottom.

[deutsey]

9. I keep thinking that maybe there will be a movement that will

offset all that is currently happening today, kind of like the labor and civil rights movements...

But those movements consisted of regular people coming together to demand and fight for their interests (and, thus, made this country better); today and probably well into the future people seem to be so "doped with religion and sex and TV," as John Lennon sang, that I don't even think they're aware of their own interests any more.

I hope I'm wrong and people start waking up. We have to start planting the seeds now, if we want to reap the harvest later, though.

[Connie_Corleone]

3. France before the revolution. nt

[LuCifer]

4. A smoldering crater n/t

n/t!

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Raptured...?

:rofl:

[baldguy]

24. Like Heavens' Gate?

We can only hope.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. You're under the assumption that there will be an "America" in 25 years

I find that proposition highly dubious.

[deutsey]

11. Oh, there will be something called "America"

It will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton by then (the paperwork is already being filed)...

:evilfrown:

[leftofthedial]

7. very dry and very hot

at least the parts that aren't submerged

[Ksec]

8. Big Brother

Hell, its already big brother.

25 years will bring so much division that I predict states will be seceding from the US. Its come to that . Too much division. Too much differences in ideology. Theres no way we can hold this country together if it stays the course. Just my simple minded opinion. It may take more than 25 years .

[Bobbieo]

13. If America is Still on the map

Just like Mexico!!!

[Walt Starr]

10. Tehre won't be an "America" n/t

[thefloyd]

12. Democrats will rule the land!!

Maybe. Or my children will be reciting the ten commandments in school everyday.

[deutsey]

16. School? You think there will be schools?

:sarcasm:

[SammyWinstonJack]

59. Only for the privileged wealthy. Throw health care in there also.

[noahmijo]

14. The United States of Space bitches!!!

Hopefully in reality we won't be the United Chinese Owned Colonies

[spuddonna]

15. If Alito is confirmed and Bush has his way...

I doubt the USA will exist as we know it... :(

[bluethruandthru]

22. A bunch of dirt poor folks all working 7 days a week

for some company owned by an oil company. Hopefully these will all be the descendants of the freepers of today who think their party is looking out for them! HA!

[spuddonna]

43. Yeah....

And they'll probably rename the US the "United States of Halliburton..."

[SammyWinstonJack]

60. "United States of Corporate America" nt

[Iktomiwicasa]

17. Modern industrial society...

...will have ceased to exist. Good riddance.

[meganmonkey]

18. Much more humble

We'll be much more humble.

I hope.

[deutsey]

20. Humiliated, perhaps...but I doubt humbled.

:evilfrown:

[leftchick]

19. Russia after the Fall of the Soviet Union

:(

[Strawman]

23. I've been holding out hope for a corrective action

I hope it happens before then. My guess is that we will bottom out in a Depression before then. When that happens will the populism that surges as a result be ugly cannibalism of poor vs. poor or will the animus be directed where it belongs: at the super rich? I hope I live to see the day when these people get what's coming to them.

BTW...your FZ signature quote is another scenario that I've considered likely. Shit, it's happening.

[liberal N proud]

25. Look to China

A few rich people running companies paying dirt wages to workers who are forced to endure unsafe, unclean conditions for 10 - 18 hours/day.
Children working along side their parents, no schools for them to attend.
Rivers polluted beyond repair.
Natural resources depleted.
The grand homes most of us live in now will be taken away and we will be forced to live in group homes with 5 or more families, no privacy.
Scrounging for what ever food we can find or pay for with the meager income we have.
You will have abandoned your cars and SUV's for bicycles because you can't afford the gasoline or the insurance.
When you get sick, you die because there will be no health care, your body will be incinerated and ashes dumped because your family could not pay for a proper burial or funeral.

BLEAK that is what the future holds for America if the current course is maintained and we are sure that course will remain as is as long as the republicans and bu$h are in power.

[SammyWinstonJack]

61. Haven't we been down that road before? And who pulled us out?

Oh yeah, that's right, the Democrats and Unions. Thanks for nothing you "Values" voters, for your self-serving and self absorbed "morality". :puke: :mad: :grr:

[yurbud]

26. Scandinavia or Third World

[raccoon]

32. Scandinavia? We should be so lucky! nt

[yurbud]

34. Exactly, Dr. King.

[FreedomAngel82]

27. Want an idea of what I think it'll be like?

Read "1984."

[deutsey]

28. Oh, you mean Rove's playbook?

[lectrobyte]

29. If you accept the premise of the Olduvai Theory, this page

has a pretty good description of life in 2030 and beyond.

http://www.oilcrisis.com/whatToDo/decline.htm

[deutsey]

41. I'm feeling very sad about what my children have ahead of them

and this link sure doesn't help...

[lectrobyte]

57. Sorry. I really think energy is the number one issue of our time,

and invading Iraq or drilling Alaska for more oil is not the answer... Sustainability. Sanity. Unfortunately, little of neither seen so far.

[deutsey]

58. Oh, I agree. I wasn't critiquing the messenger.

[NoPasaran]

30. I think that large parts of it will be rubble that glows in the dark

If you look back through history, nations that set themselves up in opposition to the rest of the world usually get their comeuppance.

[earthside]

31. Bush Proclaims Day of Thanksgiving - 2031

Royal Proclamation for Day of Thanksgiving

National News Service - December 5, 2031

(Washington) - Today, His Majesty, King George, declared December 12 a new national day of Thanksgiving. The King said that December 12 should always mark the day when in 2000, the decadent days of democracy saw the beginning of their end. It was on that day, after the disputed presidential election of 2000, that the Royal Court, then known as the Supreme Court, issued a ruling that made then-George W. Bush, president.

The new national holiday replaces the previous Thanksgiving Day of the old republic that was celebrated on the fourth Tuesday of November. The royally proclamed Thanksgiving Day joins the National Day of Commemoration, September 11, that memorializes the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. and is the day that the King characterizes as the time when the American people started to rediscovered their desire to have a monarchy that could protect them. The September 11 holiday was made a royal day of rememberance by the King in 2010.

His Majesty also remarked that after the preemptive attack on Iran in 2006, there was much to be thankful for that December 12 should commemorate.

"Even after all these years of war, we believe that the sacrifice in the Iranian war of liberation is what has made us safe and secure in this dangerous world," said His Majesty. "We have surivived and thrived since those days when martial law was declared, when the domestic enemies of our country were finally arrested and imprisoned. We also thank our subjects for the crown bestowed upon our family after the attempted coup staged by dissenters during the last so-called election of 2008. We still thank the people for their prayers and for staying in their homes quietly while government forces rounded-up the rebels."

"We will never again have to contend with a divided nation that gives comfort to our enemies by protesting the country's commander-in-chief," said the King.

In other remarks, the 85-year-old king said that he was still in very good health and had no intention of abdicating in favor of his nephew, George Pierce (Bush), son of the King's mysteriously murdered brother, John Ellis (Jeb).

"We are feeling very good for our age," said His Majesty. "We never intended to rule past 2008, but when the people called upon us, we felt God wanted us to fulfill His plan for the future. The many years since then have been hard work, but we are resolved to continue until all the heathen terrorists are defeated -- even if we have to be king until we are 100 years old."

- 0 -

[deutsey]

36. Looks like you have a career in the NSS if you want it.

Very good...probably even prophetic.

[StellaBlue]

33. .

[killbotfactory]

35. It will look like it did about 100 years ago

not good

[NotThatNolan]

37. Pretty much like today

Aside from a handful of states having banned abortion, not much will have changed beyond the normal progress. Hopefully we have flying cars by then.

Excuse me. I mean IT WILL BE DOOMSDAY AND ARMAGEDDON WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE SPEWING BLACK DEATH AND DRAGONS IN THE SEWERS!!!

[RandomKoolzip]

38. A barren plane, blanketed by radioactive soot. n/t

[long_green]

44. radioactive "snot", actually. You missed by one letter

nm

[Jara sang]

39. Evolution will weed out all the Bush supporters so we can rebuild anew.

[LeftHander]

40. Like Fifth Element without the flying cars.

Blade Runner and Minority Report....too.

It won't be much diffferent for the people who live well. They will still attracted to all the shiney trinkets and technology gadgets that surreptisiously inject surviellence and control into thier lives.

They won't notice that people simply dissapear because those people were never seen before anyway.

All the ugliness of future shock will be worn away by comfort and high resoultion cable and high speed internet run by the major media. the once free and open interet will be soon closed to discourse such as we have now.

It will simply be another "push" technology delivering the bland opiates in the form of celebrity, beauty and the illusion of wealth and comfort.

If you never run foul of the law, follow directions, stay in line and with in the bell curve you will never experience the thrill of re-education camps and mandatory drug rehabilitation in additon to the incommunicado torture sessions. All in the presence of pervasive inescapable personal advertising.


That is where we are heading...our consumer and military technology dictates it and our government will soon facilitate it.

We'll be jacked in....no longer caring about the next day or the last day because the vast majority will not care because reality is so much less exciting than reality media.

I saw the sun today. It is almost 55 degress here in Wisconsin. In January.

I left my cube and walked outside around the industrial complex where I work and wept with the sun in my face and the industrial trash around me among the craggy trees.

Trying to breath the fresh air but it was tainted with the smell of industry....

[QuettaKid]

64. wow. I think your predictions ring the most true.

which scares me.

[Obamarama]

42. I have no intention of finding out. I plan to be in Canada then.

If I'm going to work in medicine, I'm going to dispense care within the confines of a culture and a government that is willing to provide basic health care to all of its citizens.

My partner and I will also be able to get married and avoid legislation that ipso facto makes us second class citizens. Oh, and FUCK the culture war with the Resmuglican's too.

And for those of you who shudder at the thought of expatiration, don't worry...I won't let the door hit me in the ass on the way out.

[area51]

45. escape

It's understandable why people want to escape.

But them I also want to escape.

[deutsey]

48. I sometimes wish I could afford to re-locate my family

Like millions of others, I'm stuck.

[longship]

46. It all will come down to what happens in the next 12 months.

Alito, Fitzgerald, Abramoff, the Mid-terms, etc.

We have only so many chances to put our fingers in the dike. We've done okay recently, but any one of the above items may push the country over the side. If somebody in the forefront doesn't take a principled stand soon, I fear that there will not be much to celebrate in ten years, let alone 25.

I'm optimistic even if Alito somehow manages to get seated on SCOTUS. But then that would be just one more squandered opportunity. At some point, somebody has to draw the line and say, "That's enough. No more."

[mdmc]

47. Canada, God willing

1984, if not...

[Odin2005]

49. I'll probably be exiled by the American Taliban...

...after I refuse to teach Creationism to college students.

[Rex]

50. Corporations will own us.

Lock, stock and barrel.

[jonnyblitz]

51. mad max beyond thunderdome. nt

[Octafish]

52. Haiti, but meaner.

One-percent owns 99-percent.

The 99-percent fight over their one-percent.

[oneoftheboys]

53. Hi tech. You ain't seen nothing yet!

Actually, we will probably be in the middle of a SC confirmation hearing. And the GOPers will be trying to figure out if they have enough votes to filibuster.

[Bigmack]

54. I'll be 87 years old...

.. and I plan on being one very crotchety old fuck by then! I'm gonna be high-maintenance, crotchety old fuck, too.

So you young whippersnappers stop surfin' all those porn sites - git yer hands out of yer pants - and bumpin' your gums on DU and git to work!

I got my first SS check last month, and I like it. By then I'll have drawn about a half a million bucks.

No administration is gonna fuck with SS too much... it really is a "third rail" of US politics. Of course * could fuck things up so bad that SS could be bankrupt.

If that happens, watch out for a LOT of crotchety old fucks!

[Strelnikov_]

55. Like The Situation Depicted In Brin's 'The Postman'

A feudal society.

[NFL80]

56. We will have really cool cell phones...

and satellites in space that watch our every move.

[Name removed]

62. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Daphne08]

63. If things do NOT change, the U.S. will most likely reflect

the present demographics of Central America (with the exception of Costa Rica) and South America.

Our Middle Class is in danger of disappearing!

As a "Baby Boomer" this frightens me because our generation is possibly the last one that can expect to fare better economically, socially, etc., than our parents did.

I fear for the future of my children and my grandchildren.