Post your predictions. What will the USA and world be like in 2020?

[GreenPartyVoter]

[Dr.Phool]

1. What USA?

The republicriminals have dug us into such a deep hole, I don't think recovery is possible anymore.

[enid602]

6. 2020

Mary Cheney will bear Ann Coulter's triplets.

[SoCalDem]

72. New Game Shows... "Who gets to Bury Anna" and

Meal or NO Meal ?

The Price is OUTRAGEOUS.

Let's Make a WAR!

[GreenPartyVoter]

83. LOL

[Richard Steele]

61. ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

98. I thought of this the other day when someone posted the article about

chimps benig seen using tools to make spears.

:tinfoilhat:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. I don't know

There's too many variables for me to even venture guess.

I'm interested in seeing if others are more optimistic/pessimistic than I am, however.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Well I am feeling pessimistic. I think the world will have lost a lot of shoreline

so there will be some refugee issues to deal with. And I am afraid that if there is still a USA its' involved in a war somewhere that the lobbyist-funded fascists will have started in order to make more money. *depressed*

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. Regional shortages of fresh water also are a possibility

Oil wars are going to dim in comparison to the water wars. Lives may change w/o oil products, but life ends w/o water.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Well lack of oil could be deadly too. Water's no help if you are

freezing to death.

I think shortages of both (and food) are going to lead to a massive die-off of humans. (And here's another scary thought. Lacking fuel oil for heat, people turn to burning would, thus taking down a major carbon sink and making climate issues even worse.)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

42. All true

We need oil to transport food and water to regions that are deficient not to mention for heating.

Looking toward the future as it's not progressing is not a pretty sight.

[lectrobyte]

4. I'm thinking the USA may have gone the way of the USSR by 2020

after an economic collapse brought on by Peak Oil and inability to fund our deficit spending.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. True. Our economics will be right messed up by then if oil disappears.

Heck, even if it does not our economics will only get worse from here on out.

[MisterHowdy]

5. George Orwell said it best.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face..forever."

Love that quote.

In 2020 I can see the rich-poor divide wider than ever.
The USA will still be corrupt, and i'll still be very broke.

[itsmesgd]

9. without a drastic change, there will not be a USA in 2020

I almost hope that we go tribal again. The tribal family structure is one of the most solid structures that has existed through time. All governments fail (Rome, Greece, Holy Roman Empire, British Empire.....). I am kinda looking forward to self suficiency autonomous extended family clans. My people existed in tribes and small confederacies for a long time until the USA pushed them onto reservations in order to take their resources.
The USA will not last forever and I feel that we are on the edge of the changing of times. It will be hard for a generation or two, but I think that we will as a human race will be better when there are no superpowers.

[htuttle]

7. Some regions will be very damp, other regions will be very arid

...With not a whole lot in between.

[sweetheart]

10. india

A massive underclass of poor and a comparatively small middle class,
educationally starved elections use picture symbols for voters to identify the party,
and that cultural distance to power as well.

[varun]

11. caste system - American style

social mobility would disappear - almost.

[Beelzebud]

12. Watch Idiocracy.

[TheWatcher]

19. You So Beat Me To That.

"I Like Money."

[Beelzebud]

22. You like Money AND Sex? We should hang out!

LOL

Best movie since Bubba Hotep came out. :)

[lectrobyte]

24. Dude, I'm 'batin', chill, like, bro, have a Brawndo!

[Initech]

52. Upgrayedd, with two D's for a double dose of pimping!

[Beelzebud]

54. Upgrayedd was treated to a Double Dose of incarceration!

LOL

[Initech]

55. You see, a pimp's love is very different from that of a square...

:rofl:

[Beelzebud]

64. LOL What a great movie.

I went through it just last night, hitting the pause button to read all the funny shit hidden throughout the movie.

Things to pause on:

The close shot of the 10,000,000 dollar bill. "That's what I'm talking about!" "GETTIN'PAID!"

or when they spot them at CostCo. The close up of the TV screens: "Wanted for: Fucking up lots of shit"

It's not hard to see why this was stopped from being in the theaters. A lot of companies signed off their rights without reading the script. I'm not sure Fudd Ruckers was amused about being turned into "Butt-Fuckers". LOL

[d_b]

105. "if you have one bucket that holds two gallons.."

:rofl:

[yurbud]

13. half-smoldering cinder, half radiation made re-animated dinosaurs and giant spiders

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I don't think I wanna live in that world

[yurbud]

29. then run TOWARD the spider not away

[GreenPartyVoter]

84. Sounds like my childhood nightmares

[Norquist Nemesis]

15. USA will be part of economic bloc with Canada and Mexico

Oh, and there'll be a free trade agreement with Cuba.

Unfortunately, China will have economic and military superiority.

[jobycom]

16. Apple's new portable 3-D virtual reality gaming system/music player will be criticized

because the case will scratch too easily.

[yurbud]

30. or: Half of humanity dies when windows based Matrix crashes while they are jacked in

[Crayson]

100. LOL!! The blue screen of death !!

Makes sense...

[The2ndWheel]

17. Observed

Just watched more and more in our quest for efficiency, predictability, and perfection.

We'll be in another war by then. We have one every 10-15 years. At the very least significant military action. We don't invest hundreds of billions(even more in 2020) in the military to watch the bombs sit on the shelves.

As long as we have the energy required to make it work, the world will consolidate and centralize even further. Every city will look basically the same. The same stores, the same clothes, the same gadgets to play with. More people will demand what the US has had for a long time, and they have as much right to it as we do, and unless everyone can have everything, that means less for Americans. Although Americans won't really exist, other than in name only, as the world becomes one integrated system. Which is part of the quest for predictability and all that.

All that requires that energy though. If we have it, in whatever form, no problem(other than the lack of actual diversity problem). If we don't, entropy takes over, the ever increasing complex system starts to break down(with 6.5+ billion people), and that would be unpredictable.

[lectrobyte]

20. If we have energy. That's the elephant in the living room, though, isn't it?

[yurbud]

34. the people who figure out they should make their own will have it.

the tough part will be finding cars to run on the solar and wind energy you store up.

[yurbud]

35. I'm surprised health clubs haven't hooked up bikes, ellipticals, and treadmills to generators yet.

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. Not a bad idea

[yurbud]

58. call it the green "party" gym

[gravity]

96. Those produce terrible co2 emissions

Don't exhale when riding

[yurbud]

37. Give prisoners sentences in calories they have to generate instead of years

[The2ndWheel]

44. And we'll use whatever we have to keep it going

To do otherwise would be voluntary murder on a scale that puts the 20th century dictators, combined, to shame.

If we have to destroy the planet to do it, we'll do it. No matter what form of energy we use, there will be problems. There will be unintended consequences. This is still reality we're talking about. Nothing is perfect. Whatever we end up using, we're going to have problems. If we don't have the energy to "solve" those problems by pushing them off into the future to be dealt with at that time by pushing them off further into the future, things will get interesting.

Nobody seems to know what or where the goal is, but we will do whatever we have to, as quickly as we can, to get there.

[Alexander]

21. President Obama will sign a lasting Mideast peace agreement.

Hey, I can dream.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. And a pleasant dream it is, too. :^)

[JacksonWest]

25. Ahh. The spirit of optimism is strong here.

I wonder what people said in 1907 when they were asked what 1920 would be like.

I think the world will be a better place. Technology and communication will continue to evolve. The United States will have some sort of national healthcare plan. Those of us left after the rapture will form a cooperateive coffee business. And internet porn will be delivered straight into my brain.

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. And maybe the warp drive will be discovered and the Vulcans will

make first contact.

[JacksonWest]

39. Um....the Federation makes first contact. Duh. It doesn't have to be Vulcans.

[GreenPartyVoter]

56. No, actually Earth's first contact was initiated by Vulcans after

Zephram Cochran tested his warp drive, after which time we get added to the Federation. Hence the movie "First Contact".

Scary thing is in Trek history WWIII was nuclear and killed 600million people. I think the ecological disaster that awaits us will kill far more.

[JacksonWest]

65. I thought they appeared as reps of the federation...but i defer to you.

If you're going to throw out "Zephram Cochran" you probably know your Trek.

We don't have to worry about World War III killing 600 million people. Acording to Sean Hannity, we're in World War III right now. It's world war IV you need to worry about. And if Rocky movies have taught me anything(and they have) World War IV will be against the Russians. God, I miss them. Now that was a war. Cold, non-violent, and hair metal. Man i miss the eighties.

[GreenPartyVoter]

67. I thought the cold war was WWIII? I forget who said it but

I am pretty sure it was a righty.. maybe former general?

Yah, The 80s. Breakdancing, neon colored clothes and big hair. Dang I almost miss high school! LOL

[JacksonWest]

71. I think the daily show did a montage of Rwing types talking about world wars.

It was pretty brilliant. By worse case scenario, we're in world war five right now.

[GreenPartyVoter]

74. Which makes Iran 6?

[JacksonWest]

76. 5 and 1/2. China is 6. And this time it's personal.

[GreenPartyVoter]

77. Bugger. War with China will be really bad unless

it all turns to desert and their army starves to death before we get there.

[lectrobyte]

46. Well, one could make a case that pr0n has helped develop every

technology from the invention of photography to the internet, so a hard-wired 3D VR pr0n feed into your brain might not be that far off...

[Crayson]

101. why start with photography...

... the first cave wall pictures were about it too!
Along with the rest of most major artworks.
^_^

[lectrobyte]

50. I wonder what answer you'd got from the average man on the street in

Germany in 1936. Hey we got the Olympics, the economy's picking up, etc. etc. I think most of us are optimistic about our lives and our families, but when you get to something as vague as a country seems to be these days, then the crystal ball gets a lot murkier.

[JacksonWest]

70. If you asked a German in 1936, they'd probably complain about not being able to find a good deli.

Other then that, for the non jewish Germans, life didn't suck. Hell, Hitlers' war machine fueled a lot of German companies that are still around today-Volkswagen, Mercedes, ect.....

If you were a Jew in 1936 Germany, you had to look at propaganda that insulted you, register with the government, forsake your business.....

Germany aside, we're a great country with great people that happen to have a shitty leader. But I promise you, if you asked people to look at the future, at any point in our history, you're always going to have detractors. Hell, look at 1984. One of my favorite books...and that was way off the mark.

It's just surprising that there is such uniform opinion on this topic. All the doom and gloom, none of the hope. Things get better everyday. And things get worse. It's part of life. Bush will go. Others will come. Things will happen. I hate to tell you that global warming and the environment aren't going to have a profound effect on us in the next twelve years. We're not going to lose a coast by anyones estimate..so let's all just relax. Let's focus on the positive, and what we can do to make this country better, stronger, and a better global citizen. It's not like everything we do is bad. We give billions in foreign aid, create jobs and strenghten other countries economies. We lead the world in medical research. The charitble organizations founded by Bill Gates and others are without peers.

If you look at only the bad, you're never going to see the good. And if you don't believe there is a future, you're not going to fight for it.

Peace. Prosper.

[lectrobyte]

82. And speaking of 1907, deja vu all over again

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907

[Ignacio Upton]

89. Well following the 1907 precedent

and using WWI, then maybe doom and gloom will happen. Or...we'll be better off.:)

[skypilot]

28. Something like "Children of Men" but...

...without the infertility thing.

[yurbud]

32. a variation: because of virtually reality, tactile porn, people forget to have real sex

and stop making babies

[skypilot]

40. LOL!!!

"Oh shit!!! We forgot to procreate!!!"

[Ishoutandscream2]

69. Who needs virtual reality to not have sex

All everyone has to do is get married.

[yurbud]

80. that is why conservatives would be smart to GIVE marriage to gays and take it away from straights

before the human race dies out from headaches.

[quinnox]

31. Horror movie franchises will be putting out

Friday the 13th - part 31 "Jason in Atlantis"

Saw 40 "More Blood and torture than ever before!"


The United States will no longer be confined to North America as all other cultures in the world become Americanized, with the sole exception of France of course. The map will look like "The United States of the world" and "France"

[d_b]

107. I wouldn't mind seeing Jason in Atlantis

Jason represent.

[Swede]

33. In the year 2020?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=645-i_3ZwHU

in the year 2525
if man is still alive
if woman can survive
they may find...

in the year 3535
ain't gonna need to tell the truth tell no lies
everything you think do and say
is in the pill you took today

in the year 4545
ain't gonna need your teeth won't need your eyes
you won't find a thing to chew
nobody's gonna look at you

in the year 5555
your arms are hanging limp at your sides
your legs got nothing to do
some machines doing that for you

in the year 6565
ain't gonna need no husband won't need no wife
you'll pick your son pick your daughter too
from the bottom of a long glass tube

in the year 7510
if God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
maybe he'll look around himself and say
"guess it's time for the Judgement Day''

in the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
he'll either say "I'm pleased where man has been''
or tear it down and start again

in the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
he's taken everything this old earth can give
and he ain't put back nothing...

now it's been 10,000 years
man has cried a billion tears
for what he never knew
now man's reign is through

but through the eternal night
the twinkling of starlight
so very far away
maybe it's only yesterday...

in the year 2525
if man is still alive
if woman can survive
they may find...

in the year 3535
ain't gonna need to tell the truth tell no lies
everything you think do or say
is in the pill you took today

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. America will be more isolated, it's power diminished, it's economy worse.

Oh, wait, that's already happened.

But, it will get worse - from the capitalistic "American Dream" standpoint. The United States is a crumbling empire, unable to sustain it's weight because the foundations it's built on have been eroded by greed for power and are too weak.

We like to think that America is different, and better, than all the empires who have preceded us, just as they thought they were different and better. But, Lord Acton's axiom holds true for all of them.

[Faux pas]

41. The poor and working class will be housed in work camps. The

old, sick and infirm will be euthanized. bush and cheney will be thriving and happily living in Paraguay, selling water and counting their gold.

Anybody got any ideas of what country I can move to? Cheap and clueless to the ways of politics?

[Larry Ogg]

43. Can you speak Spanish? Because if you’re going to live in Mexico or South America,

you will need to speak the official language! You will also be required to have some basic but harsh survival skills, beginning with the knowledge of finding, growing and preserving your own food. And don’t worry if you survive until 2020 the smell and taste of death won’t bother you…

[rock]

45. Dead

OK, I'll soften a little. Mostly dead.

[Marie26]

47. There'd better be flying cars.

We've waited long enough.

[dysfunctional press]

92. there will NEVER be widespread use of flying cars-

like they have on the jetsons or in the starwars movies..or blade runner.

take a drive out on the roads- it's very difficult for lots of people to handle driving in two dimensions- adding a third would be asking for trouble.

[GreenPartyVoter]

99. How about those magneto cars like in "Minority Report"?

[paparush]

48. You mean the Age of the Glow in the Dark Cockroach? 'Cause that's all

that's gonna be left...

[soothsayer]

49. I'll have to answer you in chinese, but my pc doesn't have pictograms

yet

[kestrel91316]

51. A markedly diminished nation from today. With a devastated natural

environment, horrific and widespread poverty a la the Third World, and an extremely high suicide rate among the 35+ age group.

[Initech]

53. USA probably wont exist if we keep electing insane right-wingers.

Either that or we will have turned into a fundamentalist theocratic government. Either way, it doesn't look good.

[GreenPartyVoter]

57. ooh! I forgot the theocrats. Yes, they will gain in power, especially those who

peddle the tribulation pre-second coming.

[yurbud]

63. If they ever grab the wheel, they will wear out their welcome faster than Bush

The Puritans ruled England for about what, 20 years, before people got sick of them?

The Islamic Revolution in Iran had worn out it's welcome in about the same amount of time, and would likely be on their way out if Bush hadn't given them a boost with his external threat.

[Initech]

66. Personally, I'd like to think that Dobson, Robertson, and co are wearing out their welcome.

It seems they can't find their weird, scary candidate they need to rally their sheep behind for president. It was Ralph Reed, but he got busted. So hopefully that's a sign that the televangelists have overstayed their welcome.

Let's just hope that the repukes don't find a candidate like that.

[GreenEyedLefty]

59. Honestly? About the same as it is now.

It's only 13 years from now. My kids will be 30, 20, and 17. Hopefully I'll have a grandchild or two by then. There will be more nano-technology and alternative fuels will be cheap and plentiful. The Middle East will be partitioned along sectarian lines, the United States hopefully on a somewhat humbler, more humanitarian course.

[GreenPartyVoter]

62. I so hope you are right!

[oblivious]

60. Like the Philippines today.

[sakabatou]

68. I think, if this country doesn't get its ass in gear

will look like England during the Industrial Revolution. Smog, choking dust, >_<

[Bushwick Bill]

73. Suburbia and the global economy will be dead.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0413-28.htm

[GreenPartyVoter]

75. I think there would be a resurgence of ppl running their own little

farms in the country to survive. The diff would be not burning wood but relying on wind, solar, biomass, hydro.. etc etc for powering their places.

[Crayson]

102. You could burn as much wood as you want...

as long as you replant it....

[GreenPartyVoter]

109. But do saplings suck in as much CO2 as full-grown trees?

[Yavin4]

78. The Cubs Will Still Be Without A WS Championship

That's the only sure thing left in life.

[piedmont]

79. I think many of us will be engaging in subsistence agriculture

And no, the world won't be looking down their noses at us-- they'll be doing the same. We'll be well past the peak of oil production, with no real alternative to bridge the gap (it takes decades to do what needs to be done). Unless we tap our 250-year supply of coal, which we might be desperate enough to do even with the knowledge of the consequences.

I'm not totally pessimistic about this, though. This could be the chance to break the tightening choke-hold of corporate-world and develop a locally based, less destructive economy. Our current paradigm is "grow!grow!grow!" and that is mathmatically doomed to failure.

[GreenPartyVoter]

81. We have to expand further into the galaxy to keep grow, grow, grow going

[Greyhound]

85. After the corporations abandoned the region of North America,

formerly known as The United States, came the dark years. World-wide economic turmoil was exacerbated by climatic changes and resulted in the acute shortages of necessities all over the continent, this in turn sparked the revolutions and subsequent break-up of that former nation. The Atlantic Alliance, unable to feed its people, attempted to conquer the Republic of Mexico and seize the remaining fertile lands of the southwest.

The universally condemned "Farm War" failed after the AA launched a nuclear strike against Mexico City and prompted the newly unified Estados Unidos of South and Central America, with backing from the Nation of India, retaliated in kind, destroying much of the Eastern Seaboard and created the Atlantic quarantine area that exists today.

Once Canada accepted the Pacific Northwest, the newly expanded European Union gained the resources it previously lacked to compete with the Pacific Rim countries, establishing the fragile peace that exists today.

[GreenPartyVoter]

86. :^o Are you channeling a wiki from the future, or what?

[Greyhound]

104. Just projecting one scenario assuming that we continue to elect and follow

irresponsible, avaricious, ruling-class dunsels (thanks to Gene Roddenberry, I just love that word).

While it is true that the idiot frat-boy_® has recklessly engaged us in the "mother of all irreconcilable conflicts" and blown the family fortune (ours, not his) and exposed the fundamental weakness of our nation, he is just a particularly bad example of the same foolishness that has defined our country for a long time now.

[blues90]

87. If this is still the USA then

Who would have predicted bush would be handed the president position in 2000 and again in 2004 or what he has done with this country .

If he hangs around another two years we may not be here in 2020 . I may not live that long either .

All I see is more of the same and things becoming much worse each year . Even with a new president there is so much to be fixed it will take decades and then factor in global warming and how this will be slowed down , I doubt it will ever be reversed .

So we are screwed already , it's too late for many to ever get out of this mess .

[mnhtnbb]

88. USA will no longer be the most powerful country in the world. After

decades of ignoring our infrastructure to build military might and ignoring the realities of energy dependence, the system will have cracked, just as the old Soviet Union collapsed in the 80's.

In 2020 I will be 69. I hope to still be alive, living on an island in Panama.

[porphyrian]

90. Let's plan a party.

If I'm still alive, I'm sure I'll be up for getting trashed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

91. How abt on the beaches of Vermont?

:toast:

[porphyrian]

93. Heh, really. I'm actually in one of the few parts of Florida that should still be above water...

...if we're looking for a tropical place during the winter. ;)

[michreject]

94. We had a nationwide protest

And got shot.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

95. US = 3rd world in 2020.

After the economic collapse, 99% of us will be living in caves, under crumbling bridges, etc. and foraging for whatever food we can find. The rich will still live in thier mansions while hoarding any food produced. They will be protected by paid mercenaries. It will be so bad that Mexicans will simply quit crossing the border realizing they are better off in thier homeland

[GreenPartyVoter]

97. If it's that bad I'm sending my kids elsewhere to live

[SoCalDem]

110. Um.. emigration rules are kind of strict elsewhere..

Better start looking into it NOW :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

111. My Nana can have dual citzenship in Ireland. And we have relatives in Canada although

even though my MIL was Canadian I don't think hubby can have dual citizenship there.

But yah, we need to be working on a plan.

[Greyhound]

103. Have you read "Make room! Make room!" or seen "Soylent Green"?

The book was written by Harry Harrison and was the basis for the film starring Charlton Heston. The book is, as usual, much better, but both are at once, disturbingly familiar and utterly depressing.

[GreenPartyVoter]

108. I believe I saw an SNL skit based on the "It's real people" but I could

be hallucinating.

[formerrepuke]

106. There'll be just one US auto company: General Ford, making behemoth pickups and suvs

[Xenotime]

112. There will not be a USA.

The landmass will look the same but the country as we know it will be gone.

[GreenPartyVoter]

113. I still say the shorelines will have changed somewhat.

[Swamp Rat]

114. Dystopia

[GreenPartyVoter]

115. Hey, he's blue. This is a new look for him, yes? LOL