Category: Future

Long ago and far away (thank goodness!)

11/17/2010

This afternoon, as I was buying some winter clothes for two grandchildren at the Carter’s outlet store, I tried to imagine what life will be like for these two little guys, say, 25 years from now. Just the concept of life in 2035 was more than my little brain could handle!

Then I read this piece on Mature Landscaping and came away feeling better, knowing Nance probably is right. Our grandchildren (if not our children) will be so far removed from the archaic conventions of the twentieth century, they should be able to benefit from our mistakes, just as we benefited from the follies of our parents and grandparents:

http://www.maturelandscaping.com/2010/11/their-last-hurrah-and-hallelujah.html

2 Comments

The sky is expanding! The sky is expanding!

4/6/2010

4 Comments

Some of you know I’m a big fan of David Brooks, perhaps the last moderate conservative left in the 50 states. He also happens to be an independent thinker, not easily swept along the muddy river of disinformation created by Fox and friends.

Thank you, David Brooks, for giving us something to look forward to during these bleak times. Here’s an op-ed worth sending to your kids and grandkids:

April 6, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist

Relax, We’ll Be Fine

By David Brooks

According to recent polls, 60 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. The same percentage believes that the U.S. is in long-term decline. The political system is dysfunctional. A fiscal crisis looks unavoidable. There are plenty of reasons to be gloomy.

But if you want to read about them, stop right here. This column is a great luscious orgy of optimism. Because the fact is, despite all the problems, America’s future is exceedingly bright.

Over the next 40 years, demographers estimate that the U.S. population will surge by an additional 100 million people, to 400 million over all. The population will be enterprising and relatively young. In 2050, only a quarter will be over 60, compared with 31 percent in China and 41 percent in Japan.

In his book, “The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050,” über-geographer Joel Kotkin sketches out how this growth will change the national landscape. Extrapolating from current trends, he describes an archipelago of vibrant suburban town centers, villages and urban cores.

The initial wave of suburbanization was sprawling and featureless. Tom Wolfe once observed that you only knew you were in a new town when you began to see a new set of 7-Elevens. But humans need meaningful places, so developers have been filling in with neo-downtowns — suburban gathering spots where people can dine, work, go to the movies and enjoy public space.

Over the next 40 years, Kotkin argues, urban downtowns will continue their modest (and perpetually overhyped) revival, but the real action will be out in the compact, self-sufficient suburban villages. Many of these places will be in the sunbelt — the drive to move there remains strong — but Kotkin also points to surging low-cost hubs on the Plains, like Fargo, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux Falls, and Boise.

The demographic growth is driven partly by fertility. The American fertility rate is 50 percent higher than Russia, Germany or Japan, and much higher than China. Americans born between 1968 and 1979 are more family-oriented than the boomers before them, and are having larger families.

In addition, the U.S. remains a magnet for immigrants. Global attitudes about immigration are diverging, and the U.S. is among the best at assimilating them (while China is exceptionally poor). As a result, half the world’s skilled immigrants come to the U.S. As Kotkin notes, between 1990 and 2005, immigrants started a quarter of the new venture-backed public companies.

The United States already measures at the top or close to the top of nearly every global measure of economic competitiveness. A comprehensive 2008 Rand Corporation study found that the U.S. leads the world in scientific and technological development. The U.S. now accounts for a third of the world’s research-and-development spending. Partly as a result, the average American worker is nearly 10 times more productive than the average Chinese worker, a gap that will close but not go away in our lifetimes.

To continue reading, click Read More on the right.

4 Comments