2027

I have selected 2027 as the year when the future starts. What I mean is that the year 2027 will be the year when the next cycle of prosperity begins. One such era began in 1945. Twenty years later began a time of spirituality. The next phase of the cycle, the age of the individual, started in 1983. The next crisis cycle began in 2001. This crisis cycle should be resolved by 2019. Given a few years to clean up the debris, by 2027, we should have another time of prosperity.

The world that will exist in 2027 will be as different as 1953 was from 1929. 1929 was the beginning of the last crisis cycle. As frightening as these times of crisis are, humankind has survived them all. The next will be no different. There are over three hundred million Americans alive today. Even if our eight largest cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, our losses would be only about forty million Americans. Of course, that would be unspeakably awful; however, two hundred and sixty million Americans would survive. No doubt, these survivors will redefine the nation and the world.

These survivors will rise from the ashes demanding balance. The “extreme” philosophy of Generation X will be passé. The thrill of the extreme will die with the real hardships faced during the crisis. The result will be moderation in all things. Reason will return to the political landscape. Social responsibility will return to the forefront, and the corporate monopolies that now rule will give way to the common good.

Technology will be used to improve life. Streets and highways, neglected in favor of weapons expenditures, will be rebuilt with the future in mind. They will use computer technology to be smarter and safer. Artificial intelligence will drive your vehicle for you by means of expert sensors and global positioning systems.

Newspapers will be electronic as publishers finally wrestle the internet away from individual mavericks. They will be tailored to your interests. Audio and video will digitally stream to your vehicle as corporate radio and television now do.  

Wages will finally climb to reasonable levels. Money itself will be adjusted in value. Paper money will become more and more novel as debit cards become more popular. In order to ensure security, some form of biometrics will be utilized for debit cards, most likely an electronic thumbprint.

Two factors will increase the average income. One is diminished population levels forcing a more competitive wage structure. The second factor will be a sense of social responsibility redefining what is reasonable profit while rewarding workers for their efforts. This will be forced by revitalized unionization.  

Credit as we understand it will disappear. The unsecured loan will be held in disdain by consumers and businesses alike. This will be a result of the overuse of credit scores for non-credit purposes and the irresponsible use of credit in the previous two generations.

Health care will finally get the attention it deserves. The new social contract will elevate health care to a right. In the aftermath of an outbreak of a biological pathogen, some form of socialized medicine will emerge. If not, otherwise healthy people will succumb to treatable diseases for lack of adequate insurance. Those uninsured and underinsured will suffer economic hardship due to the high cost of health care. This will be followed by the collapse of a health insurance industry unable to pay the claims of millions of covered patients in the wake of the epidemic. The government will relieve the private health insurance companies of their responsibilities and will evolve an effective and efficient health care system.

The medical community itself will undergo change. Society will see it as partially culpable for the crisis. It will carry a sense of guilt for its inability to render aid in the early stages of the outbreak. Health care professionals will be forced to restructure medical care to be responsive to all people.

Cost effective and efficient desalinization will provide additional sources of fresh water and allow resources to be diverted back into agriculture.

The division between rural and urban will blur. Small towns will be revitalized as survivors scatter across the country. Cities that survive will be far less populated. Corporate America, fearing the target created by building in clusters, will disperse. Smaller cities will expand in size to accommodate the new influx of business and people. The government will intervene to set fair market values for real estate to prevent price gouging. Super cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, having been abandoned during the crisis, will be recovered as living monuments to the twentieth century.

Multinational corporations will cease to exist by this time. In the year 2027, distrust of foreign influence and the inability of the multinationals to respond to national interests will finally take their toll on these corporations. The market will de-invest in the global giants in favor of more localized firms. Production facilities will be forced back into the United States.

The classic conservative values of God, home, community, and employer will prevail in the surviving culture, at least in publicly. In private, neo-hedonistic subcultures will add a diversion to the publicly uniform life. Monogamous marriages for public show will provide cover for discreet extramarital affairs. Indiscretion will be socially punished, but forgotten and forgiven quickly as long as the primary family unit remains in tact and the children are not affected.

Children will be treasured, pampered, and protected as national treasures. The crisis will assert a sense of the fragility of life and the blessing of existence. Certain side effects of the crisis will result in sterilization. Couples will be free to adopt orphans and unsupported children. Every child will be viewed as a community asset; the community will come to the aid of any struggling parent. Parents will be held in high esteem for having children and will readily find support with any issue. Community and social responsibility will connect with individual responsibility to provide an artificially safe environment in the surviving nation.

Religion will find itself delegated to private life. It will no longer be a viable political tool. By consensus, religion in public life will be suspect. The surviving generation will not tolerate religious bigotry, public displays of religion outside of acceptable religious centers or group identification based on religion.

The surviving generation will demand order from the religious and anti-religious factions. The same holds true concerning political divisions. Wide political divergences will be tolerated only as long as they remain in the confines of political aspirations.

National politics will be defined by the overwhelming, almost compulsive desire to achieve diplomatic resolutions to all problems. Elected officials will be skilled political leaders and diplomats. Armed conflict will be repulsive to the surviving generation. They will engage the world on all levels to find common communal values and build solutions.

If not replaced, the United Nations will become a form of elected representative global government. It will function on a parliamentary system similar to the British system. This body will be a two-house body, much like the United States Congress. One house will be based on population while the other will allow for equal representation. The executive branch of the new United Nations will have police powers. The surviving generation will demand that national sovereignty take a back seat to global necessities. Any national government that opposes this trend will be replaced. We will demand global engagement to ensure global social order. The key for the traumatized surviving generation will be order. They will demand it, and they will get it.

The trauma of the crisis will have a prolonged effect on its survivors. Drug use will be high due to traumatized survivors self-medicating and to the early failures of the medical community to cope with the impact of high casualties during the crisis. The result will be the decriminalization of drug use and a surviving generation demanding solutions to drug dependence. Drug use will be stripped of its social stigma and addressed as a medical issue. All forms of abnormal behavior due to delayed stress will be addressed through the medical community. 

As the surviving generation gives way to the treasured generation, uniformity and pragmatism will give way to nonconformity and the exploration of individual expression. Creativity will rise in the arts and the media and pave the way towards an enlightened, educated era of free expression.

These are just predictions based on the events of history. History is only a guide; it is not a dictator. We may not be able to avert the crisis. However, we can minimize it by rationally addressing it. Our job now is to make sure that people survive to see the next era of prosperity. Our future is bright; we just need to get there.