Income inequality, leading to gravely divided, and increasing conflicted, economic/social class.
Militarized cops.
Robotics offering a potential 805 unemployment rate (possibly an overblown risk).
Wildly polarized politics.
Ineffective government.
A rapidly degrading educational system.
Dopers–do you see hope for America?
Not really. I think modern society as a whole has reached its peak and is now on the downslope. Too many people, not enough resources.
As for America, we seem to have lost the ability to think outside the box. A concept like banning all political parties (Something George Washington thought was a good idea) seems like crazy talk to most. No longer able to adapt = extinction.
I chose the don’t know option.
It depends on what you mean by “hope”. Will things get better? Probably. Will they get worse? Probably not…at least by much. Will things essentially stay the same? That’s what I think
No. The Left wants the government to regulate the entire economy, top-to-bottom, but to otherwise get out of our lives. They want free drugs, free healthcare, free everything, and they want the rich fat-cats on Wall Street to pay for it all.
The Right wants government out of our schools, our environment, and our business, but to otherwise get up in our personal business and to mandate morality. The rich fat-cats want a docile, obedient [del]slave[/del] “work” force with absolutely no political power whatsoever.
Thus there is no cohesive, contiguous policy, just two irrevocably, diametrically opposed viewpoints battling it out.
The best outcome is a decade (or two) more of this ambiguity, while we continually weaken as a nation and culture, until the barbarians pull us down, and we go the way of Rome.
The worst case is a political compromise in which each side gets enough of what they want that we start to resemble a proto-Oceania.
Yes. What’s the point in doing otherwise? A black man has been President; a woman won’t be long. Civil rights are expanding. Technology is improving - video games and smart phones are just going to get better. I, for one, am excited at the prospect of what stem cell treatments can offer. And if America loses its status as the world’s #1 superpower, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Unaffordable health care that is becoming more and more out of reach is a major problem too.
I don’t know, I guess both good and bad is coming. But economically it will not be good for most of us. The political ineffectiveness is a problem on a national level, but maybe it won’t be as bad on the state or local level.
I’m hoping the rise of China will force us to shape up to compete.
When I look at America’s history, I see lots of eras that offered less reason for hope than anything the country is facing today. If we could make it through all of that, of course there’s hope for the future now.
It will get worse before it gets better, but I do think it will get better.
Of course there’s hope. The United States…
… has a crime rate that’s basically at its lowest point in decades (and a murder rate at its lowest point in over a century).
… still has the best higher education system in the world.
… is still the most popular location for foreign investment – broadly speaking the capital markets would rather bet on the US than China or Russia or any other country.
… is the world leader in technological innovation.
… is still, despite recent protestations that America doesn’t make things anymore, 2nd only to China in terms of manufacturing output. US output is basically equivalent to that of Germany, South Korea, Italy, Russia, Brazil and India combined.
… still has by far the largest military in the world, larger than – what is it now? – the next 8 or 9 militaries combined.
… has less corruption than all but 11% of other countries (by one measure).
And so on. Some of the above may sound jingoistic. I’d hasten to point out that, although I am an American, I don’t consider myself to be at all patriotic. There are many things I don’t like about my country. But, still, in terms of simple data – degrees awarded, dollars invested, innovations brought to market, etc. – the United States is still doing fantastically well. Not compared to our idealized wishes for what the country could be or what in our minds it once was, perhaps, but compared to other countries that actually exist.
(And the world as a whole, by the way, is also getting better by the vast majority of measures. If we manage not to screw ourselves with climate change or nuclear war or xxx or yyy, I think the future looks *relatively *bright for mankind.)
My Mom and I have had a similar discussion many times, and i can understand how she sees gloom, despair and agony on the way. I try to suggest that she is seeing but a snapshot in time (~ 70 years)… so while it may look grey, if you look at today’s life compared to life in the last 200 years or more, we ain’t doin’ so bad.
Me, I’m an optimist. I can’t reliably tell what the future will hold, so i try to think positively. Really it could all go to shit in 25 years, or it could blossom into a wonderful, caring society. Since I don’t know (and have little control over) what’s going to happen, I may as well think positive and keep the smile on my face.
But I’ll admit that, some days, trying to paint a rosy picture over the bullshit canvas of present-day [del]earth[/del] America can be a real challenge. But I’m optimistic for a better life for everyone and everything.
It pains me to say that America’s best days are behind it. I can’t imagine ever see America returning to the prosperity of the 50’s and 60’s. Most of our industry for manufacturing are closed. Jobs are flooding to cheap markets over seas. Our medical service is in trouble with a shortage in rural doctors. The core infrastructure roads,dams, bridges are all old and in need of repair. Major cities like Detroit are wastelands of abandoned housing.
I’d very much like to hope things will improve. I hope we’re not on the path to a sad and steady decline that Roman and Ottoman empires suffered.
I voted yes only because there has to be something better for future generations.
I would say it will get different. Each new change will bring about 9 bad things…and 10 good ones. Everybody will be able to point to the bad and say, “See? Worse!” But it’s only when you take fully into account the overall balance of progress that you can say, “Well, all in all, a little better.”
America? The World! Same answer, and the two are no longer divisible. America is too much a part of the world. The world hates us…and loves us…and needs us…and needs not to need us!
We’re just coming out of twenty years of war. Hell, yes, things are getting better!
The whole “America is in decline! It’s all downhill from here!” lament is incredibly popular among the left, so don’t be surprised to hear the Dopers tell you the sky is falling. In reality, we’re still going strong, and we always will.
Crime is way down. Unemployment is under 7%. People are living longer. The water plants still work. The courts work. Our elections are fair. No one arrests you for your speech. We own homes. We have cars and the Internet.
And I don’t see any “militarized cops” lurking in the bushes to break up your pot-legalization rally or your Socialists of America meeting. So chill.
I hardly think it’s accurate to attribute that attitude especially to one side of the political spectrum. These days, in particular, with a Democrat in the White House, the right has its own (particularly vehement) strain of “America is fucked!” Chicken Littles.
This is exactly what they used to say in Sumeria.
:dubious:That is supposed to be something to be proud of, is it?
(I agree with the thrust of most of your post, but really, a nearly 7% rate of unemployment really ought to be considered absolutely awful. Inasmuch as it is not considered to be awful, that is one of the signs that something is badly wrong with the polity.)
You hear it from the right too, about how we’re in moral decay, and about the golden age when kids behaved better, people weren’t having sex outside of marriage, you didn’t see such vulgarity on TV, people were going to church, blah blah blah. It’s the same old crap.
Self-fulfilling prophecies have a way of, well, fulfilling themselves. We need to restore our optimism, our faith in the system or systems that make our society work. W’eve been in worse shape in the past, pulled through with flying colors.
When Charles Lindbergh visited Germany in I think it was 1938 he predicted accurately (for the moment) that the Luftwaffe was vasrly superior to our various air corps by a wide margin; and he was right. In an air war, Germany would bury us. Lindy took a lot of flak for this but he was essentially telling the truth.
As war clouds darkend we began to spend more on the military, including air power; and we brought back the draft. Within five years of Lindbergh’s (at the time) realistic prophecy, our air corps were at the same level as Germany’s and we had a lot more fighter planes and bombers than they had.
It was the same with the so-called “space race” in the wake of the Soviet Sputnick satellite. President John F. Kennedy wanted us to put a man on the moon,–and man on the moon!–before the decade of the 60s was over; and so we did, even as JFK did not himself live to see the event.
If we can think positively, emphasize the can-do instead of it can’t be done, I think that the future of America in the 21st century can be bright; that we can work miracles, as we truly did in the last century. This has as much to do with attitude,–and for many (most?) of us faith, as it is of facts and figures and statistics, which change from day to day, week to week, by the month and by the year. I do see hope, but we need to put more effort in our endeavors.
I was under the impression that there are too many doctors and lawyers graduating from schools, with not enough jobs to sustain them
Was I wrong in this? It was, admittedly, something I just kinda heard, or read on the internet so I have no cite.
