Where do You See Your Country in Fifty Years?

[Odysseous2]

We'll be liberal, very liberal. After the Bush administration let the banks loose and made the entire Western world bankrupt, I think the republicans will be out of favor for a while. And once Barack Obama Jr. gets elected for his seventh term, we'll have free healthcare all around. The homeless will have homes. Our nuclear program will decline, and our space program will rise again in its place. Additionally, Jews will love Muslims, the Iranian government will be overthrown, and San Francisco will be a sovereign nation.

Well, a guy can dream, can't he?

Realistically, I think everywhere but New Zealand will be a nice, tranquil pile of soot in fifty years. I'd love nothing more than for the world to prove me wrong. But until that day, I remain a cynic.

 

[reconrider]

well, if our leaders get their heads out of their arses we will probably be on an economic rise much like the 80s and 90s, all cars will run on alternative fuels, we will be off fossil fuels permanently and if all goes well we will have nearly infinite electricity through the use of Fusion Reactors. Our culture will be as diverse as ever and we may even have a few flying car prototypes... Hell we might even land on mars and start the terraforming process. But for all we know WW3 will have came and gone, and of course end with nuclear war effectively destroying civilization as we know it.

 

[Hylke Langhout]

In a worst-case scenario, either destroyed by nukes or underwater. In a best-case scenario, more prosperous and neutral than we've been so far. (Netherlands)

 

[Crazy]

I don't know, I'm not good at predicting things. I go with the flow and improvise along the way.

 

[lunavixen]

The carbon tax isn't so much an environmental issue, the government noticed mining companies making record profits and wanted some of them. Only the mining companies had better ads, so Labor changes PMs, tones it down alot and says its a green move.

Yeah, it'll have some environmental effects, but it's really about making the most of the mining industry currently being worth alot before it runs out.

IIRC, Australia's carbon pollution isn't so low if compared against similar developed nations, not the world as a whole.

i know all that, but the carbon tax is going to hit the pockets of people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the state i'm in NSW, has also recently not long had an 18% increase in electricity prices, so we're getting hit twice for the same issue.

but how does our carbon pollution level justify us paying up to or more than 5x what other nations do? i don't think so, especially when it's the families who are going to be hardest pressed, especially poorer ones.

 

[Thaluikhain]

i know all that, but the carbon tax is going to hit the pockets of people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the state i'm in NSW, has also recently not long had an 18% increase in electricity prices, so we're getting hit twice for the same issue.

but how does our carbon pollution level justify us paying up to or more than 5x what other nations do? i don't think so, especially when it's the families who are going to be hardest pressed, especially poorer ones.

But something like 90% of households will be compensated.

The tax-free threshold is going to be more than tripled, instead of not paying tax on your first $6,000, you don't pay tax on your first $18,200, there are tax cuts if you earn less than $80,000 a year.

Alot of people will be better off under the new system because it encourages them to make their houses more energy efficient.

 

[lunavixen]

i know that too, we had to do a paper on the carbon tax and its impacts for political sociology, the total compensation is i think about $300 per year (lump sum) for very low income families, versus paying $10 per week (on average for residential households) in the first year, before going up to $23AU per carbon tonne put out

 

[Xifel]

Well us up in Canada got all the drinkable water so unless you guys stop messing up the environment you're gonna be pretty unhappy. You're gonna attack us for it? we'll hold the water hostage, using our monopoly and bargaining chip to attain goods and services. Then we'll use our jet fighter robots and solar powered psychokinesis to ruin all your stuff (cookie for the reference).

We got a fair share of the drinkable water to! (Sweden)

So... I guess we should be allies? Scandinavian countries and Canada is basically the same. We just have to execute Sweden's old plan to create moose cavalry.

OT: We will sadly have unemployment, a right wing goverment and a crumbling system. I really do not have any hope for the West in the future...

 

[him over there]

Well us up in Canada got all the drinkable water so unless you guys stop messing up the environment you're gonna be pretty unhappy. You're gonna attack us for it? we'll hold the water hostage, using our monopoly and bargaining chip to attain goods and services. Then we'll use our jet fighter robots and solar powered psychokinesis to ruin all your stuff (cookie for the reference).

We got a fair share of the drinkable water to! (Sweden)

So... I guess we should be allies? Scandinavian countries and Canada is basically the same. We just have to execute Sweden's old plan to create moose cavalry.

OT: We will sadly have unemployment, a right wing goverment and a crumbling system. I really do not have any hope for the West in the future...

That seems like a fair and profitable agreement, however I think we may have to upgrade to polar bear cavalry when compared to our enemies:

 

[Blow_Pop]

Really badly in debt and the new USSR.....Except it will be more like UASR (Union of American Socialists Republics)

oh wait...we're already starting to resemble that...it might not take 50 years.....

 

[Blackout62]

Hopefully still existant, I have to live here.

 

[Quantum Star]

...Pretty much that. Sadly. I can't see our current highway leading anywhere else.

I dunno, I think I'd enjoy that future. Assuming I survived, of course, because a wasteland situation would be fun as hell.

Real life nuclear apocalypse =/= Fallout 3

 

[lRookiel]

England will more than likely a destroyed mess as I reckon within the next 50 years another world war will break out, if not 2 of them.....

So yeah as you can tell I'm optimistic for our future.

 

[Joshimodo]

UK will either still be struggling much like now, or more or less devoid of real power. That is, unless something absolutely drastic happens, which is unlikely.

We also won't be able to fully rely on the US as we could if that scenario happened today, since they'll be in a mess by then as well. Probably not as bad though, assuming they don't piss off China or Russia.

 

[Redworld13]

It Australia? Wouldnt suprise me if we had Shane Warne cloned and he became our eternal god-king.....

 

[uzo]

Australia? I daresay we'll be squabbling with NZ and Argentina over who gets Antarcitca. There is 14 million square kms of land down there opening up once that ice disappears, utterly untouched by humanity.

However, I believe much of the land is rocky and mountainous - effectively useless for farming - and the soil, after all the years of glaciation, is probably as barren as a desert.

I plan on moving down there and running a penguin farm for Kentucy Fried Penguin. They're flipper licking good!

 

[Double A]

...Pretty much that. Sadly. I can't see our current highway leading anywhere else.

Don't forget that everyone will speak Spanish.

 

[Redryhno]

I'd have to say that in fifty years the U.S. will be bumped down on the world literacy chart by at least thirty places, probably more like fifty (yeah, i'm a bit pessimistic, but it turns out i'm right about 80% of the time)

We will have had at least two more wars that we get into because we feel we have to "save the heathens" or something along those lines, and have around ten years of complete isolationism between each war.

We will continue to push the idea that if you don't go to college you're a piece of shit that belongs in the Middle East walking around with a sandwich board that says something along the lines of "jesus is the one and only chance for you to live a good life... and by the way, anyone that thinks different will soon be charted off to the nearest mental institution and 'saved'". This will also coincide with the deevolution of the society until we forget how to pour our own coffee, besides the crazy thing that they pay $10 for a cup of black coffee, and constantly complain about how the previous president did everything wrong, and how the new candidate is the only thing that can save the U.S. and we will become either a country divided into multiple countries, or we become a society of pompous, asinine socialists that look down their noses at anyone that doesn't have a democracy that's as "flawless" as ours.

No, I haven't thought about this kind of thing before... not at all.

 

[Random Fella]

(New Zealand)

Filled more with tourists than people who live here. People seem to love our current government, and I'm no politician so I'm not gonna go throwing out criticism because I have no idea how hard it is, but our Prime Minister seems to be pushing a lot for tourism because it's a massive source of income for us. And we aren't a particularly bad country (even though we have high teen pregnancy rates, binge drinking, smoking, unemployment, all that jazz. But that's just New Zealand, it's part of our charm I guess you could say), it's just that Australia is close and just better than us. Everyone is moving over there to find better jobs, get a better education, all of that. So the combination of those two things, more tourists than residents at any given time (maybe a bit of a hyperbole, but whatever). I'm probably wrong though, I'm hardly qualified to make these sorts of predictions...

The only thing with the people moving overseas due to better jobs is that a lot of people who are older, but more experienced come back or just come here from another country due to the country having beautiful views and being a great place to raise children. So pretty much these people get sent off and return with a greater skill. We are a great tourist location yes, but i'd doubt us to have more population of tourist than resident at any given time, although i'm sure that was a hyberbole.
Anyway in 50 years time I see us underwater haha just kidding, i'm not a silly hippy.