What social changes do you think will happen in the US in the coming 50 years?
08-06-2012, 11:49 PMQuote: (08-05-2012 12:01 PM)Finas Wrote:
over 50 years ago or so (around that time) we had things like the civil rights movement going on
Now I say 50 years is too much maybe to guess, who knows what can happen till then, but 20 to 50 years from now, what social changes do you see happening in the US?
I personally think there's too much gloom and doom in this thread but I'll say my piece as well:
1. The USA will become more stratified by race in the near-term. The Republican party will likely become the "Party of Whites" while the Democrats become the "Party of Non-Whites". It's probable that this split will dramatically increase the amount of racial tension in the USA although it will probably only take place in the urban areas. A large proportion of Hispanics will most likely adopt the "White" label and become the new Italians/Greeks/Jews in the USA while the rest will probably entirely deny the existence of their partial European heritage. Due to the large amount of mixing between the primarily mestizo Hispanics and traditionally White Americans, much of the USA(California, Texas, and Florida especially) will start looking more racially akin to Argentina or Chile than Northern Europe or Mexico. This "Argentinian White" group and its rapid growth will probably prevent the USA from becoming minority-White this century.
2. American English and Latin American Spanish will likely start fusing(think Spanglish) within the USA as the nation becomes increasingly bilingual. This won't create a new language in such a short period of time but it could possibly be the start of a new "Anglo-Latin" language and culture. I predict that the USA will adopt many aspects of Latin American culture while still maintaining a majority of the traditional Anglo-American culture.
3. American feminism and hypergamy will see a rapid rise to unprecedented levels until hitting a wall and going into decline as abortion/cheap contraceptives stop the growth of the "hedonist"(for lack of a better word) population. Demographics will usher in a renaissance of traditional values as a majority of the children will be growing up in religious/traditional households. Once this religious and traditional generation hits its peak, it will push for legislation that repeals most of the progressive legislation of the 60s(don't worry, not the Civil Rights Act). Hopefully, the legislation pushed by what will probably be a large, religious, White and Hispanic political bloc will end the stagnation and decay of Black America.
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I also wrote these predictions before rereading that you stated "social changes":
4. Rapid growth in biomedical technology allows for human embryos to be augmented in the womb. This will allow people in affluent nations to wipe out genetic diseases much like we did with small pox and polio. There's also the possibility for designer children(everyone's sons are going to be 6'3" Italians in 50 years?) although there will be a definite push by the religious to ban it. Gene therapy and/or augmented body parts(think Deus Ex: HR) could become readily available in the next few decades causing a true "superiority/inferiority" schism to occur on socio-economic levels.
5. Hyper-efficiency in most industries will wipe out much of the need for labor. A definite push for socialism will occur as wealth will rapidly continue to accumulate with those that own the capital. Robotics and further automation will inevitably make cheap labor obsolete and industry will thus return to the West to cut transportation costs as they will be higher than the near-zero labor costs of maintaining the equipment. I believe China will industrialize to the point where they will make it to self-sufficiency with a large enough domestic market to prop themselves up on. Although, India and Africa will likely fall back down into the dump as they aren't given the great boost that East Asia gained(Western investment and markets) in the second half of the 20th century.
6. Lassiez-Fairre Capitalism(as we know it) will be probably be phased out as it will no longer be the optimal economic ideology in the new "era of material abundance"(for the West and East Asia). As the amount of labor(intellectual included) ceases to be needed, a new economic model will have to be created that allows the benefits of such abundance to be spread across society in a way that won't cause it to self-destruct(like Communism did) or concentrate all wealth into the hands of a few(like modern Capitalism likely will). We'll have a nation with 200 million workers yet only enough work for 50 million. A possibility could be to gradually lower the average work week although that would only postpone the inevitable.
7. Space exploration, exploitation, and colonization will begin as many rare metals necessary for industry become scarce on Earth and as technology makes it economically feasible. On the bright side of things for the non-Western/East Asian peoples, the abundance of minerals in near-Earth orbit will likely save the less affluent nations from becoming the victimes of another Great Scramble. At first, most of the work done in space will probably be done by robots as human muscles and organs atrophy in zero-g environments. Of course though, technological augmentation like I stated in point #1 will likely allow humans to safely live in space soon after. Once carbon nanotubes are able to be mass-produced, it will likely be viable to create a space elevator which would make the vast majority of mining on Earth non-viable.