Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Scoops Novel]

Including a double dip recession, but hopefully more important without it, what will be the next thing on the worlds mind? I've seen it mentioned, and i would like to discuss it further.

[Euld]

I'd say... probably back to watching the Middle East quarrel with itself.  Unless we kick off another space age somewhere along the way.

[Glowcat]

I'd like to kick off a second space age.

I just hope that when (if) we expand into space, we can do it as a unified species. War on a multiple-planetary scale would be very, VERY bad.

Knowing humanity, we'd make our greatest advancements in space travel just to blow each other up better. Ergo, the sooner we get a colony on Mars the sooner they can secede, and the sooner we can leave this galaxy with proper spaceships. 

Including a double dip recession, but hopefully more important without it, what will be the next thing on the worlds mind? I've seen it mentioned, and i would like to discuss it further.

I'm pretty sure that without the recession America would've mostly have been arguing about social issues during the first few years and economic issues (such as Wallstreet excess) would've taken a back seat, although the wars in the middle east almost certainly guarantee we'd still be arguing over the deficit. Whether we entered a recession or not I think there's something that's inevitable for the country to deal with: the consequences of global warming. We're at the point where even if all of humanity miraculously stopped producing CO2 we'd see a high frequency of natural disasters due to what we've already produced. But since that drastic change is impossible we need to be prepared for worse. A lot worse. The cost in lives and money is going to continue increasing. Either people on the East Coast need to begin looking into new methods of building cities to withstand tropical storms or they need to consider moving further inland where they won't be constantly under siege by the Atlantic. Moving further north may also be in the interest of us who live in the southernmost regions and Canadians might be building their own border wall in a few decades.

We should also do everything we can to follow Germany's example and convert our energy production to renewable clean energy sources. The sooner the better. I am however unsure that we can do so without sufficient outrage being brought against the industrial powers vested in the fossil fuel business and their servants in DC. Half of the country seems content in pretending this isn't happening or that human CO2 production isn't responsible. And other countries like China will be reticent to compromise their growth efforts if the USA doesn't make its own efforts to find alternative energy sources.

[Scoops Novel]

Part shameless bump, part what we'll happen when we're out of recession, and will the banking system be actually reformed?

[misko27]

Climate change is going to rapidly become important. Even if people choose to not believe it, the results will still have to be dealt with. Here in NYC, the Governer is considering levees. Levees. in NYC. Hurricane sandy was the largest Atlantic storm ever (in terms of actual width) and the second costliest one (right after katrina). It came a year after the first hurricane to hit the region is decades, and the first evacuation of low-lying areas, Irene. Alsothe first ever system-wide closing of the subways. A year later, it happens again. And harder. There'sa reason Bloomberg endorsed Obama.
 
Global inequality would be les prominient. There's a chance Arab spring might not have occured (rising food prices. See? Good things come of it too!) Space? Naah. As much as it's the next frontier for man, there are too many nay-sayers. Of course, man must expand, so it will come, but not yet. I do genuinely expect a lunar base in our lifetime. Hell, probably in my mom's lifetime (50 with heart defect. Aortic Aneurysm. Growing slowly, so she'll be fine.)
 
Internet issues would be far more important, as well as general cyber-security. There's been a number of things that sparked the issure, alla SOPA, but it would most likely be near the fore-front as a emerging issue.
 
The United States would probably be more willing to challange China, and so there'd be more tension in the pacific. Presumbably the US military might be involved, with obvious implications for hostility. Especially if they decide to help Japan in the matter of patrolling the Senkaku islands.
 
I'lll think of more later.

[Scoops Novel]

Oooh oooh! Will we have one of these in the near future? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGreatPoliticsMessUp. Worse, how about this? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhyWereBummedCommunismFell.

[Vector]

Socially: Women's rights, gay rights are going to become more of a normal thing.  Next big curbstomp battle--disability and trans rights, hopefully a reasonable men's rights movement.  I'm guessing trans first on the coattails of gay marriage, then disability is going to become a huge thing.  Probably the men's rights stuff will be more quiet, but I'm expecting a societal shift.

Things that the politicians will actually care about: global warming.

[Jervill]

Well, LGBT rights finally crossed the hurdle of winning elections this year, so it shouldn't take too long until it moves into completely accepted territory.   Winning all 4 of the major ballot measures certainly helped, but on the other hand, all those states are decently progressive.  It will take time for LGBT rights to be completely accepted in some of the less progressive states.

[Itnetlolor]

I'd like to kick off a second space age.

I just hope that when (if) we expand into space, we can do it as a unified species. War on a multiple-planetary scale would be very, VERY bad.

Knowing humanity, we'd make our greatest advancements in space travel just to blow each other up better. Ergo, the sooner we get a colony on Mars the sooner they can secede, and the sooner we can leave this galaxy with proper spaceships. 

I have a strange feeling that after enough development in space travel and whatnot, Earth will become a sort of prison planet, living under a serfdom of sorts, while the upper-class elites rule space and other planets while we're trapped under a slave shield or something.

Oddly enough, I think it would resemble a combination of Starcon and Infinite Space (with a dash of Gundam), and maybe The Hunger Games for entertainment of the elite masses. This is provided that the tin-hats ranting about the Bilderbergs, Freemasons, and elite families (evolving to Houses, ala Dune, like the House of Rockefeller) are right about them, and they'll hit the really-really-high road, while we're stuck with our crappy little blue rock.

That ever happens, I'll don my brown coat.

[Zrk2]

Oooh oooh! Will we have one of these in the near future? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGreatPoliticsMessUp. Worse, how about this? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhyWereBummedCommunismFell.

Dammit. That's the second time in two days I've lost myself to that site. Just when I think I've plumbed its depths, I get sucked in again.

[Nega]

the sooner we get a colony on Mars the sooner they can secede, and the sooner we can leave this galaxy with proper spaceships. 

And the sooner I can begin my life's dream of working for Nanotrasen. 

[kaenneth]

There are two main (sensible) ways to invest.

Stable, low income over time; or Volitile high income over time.

the 'Safe' investments don't pay very much, while the 'Risky' ones, as a whole, pay out more on average.

When you are young, and have 40-50 years to retirement, you can choose higher risk investments, as that will build more wealth.

When you are retiring, you want low risk investments, so you have regular steady income.

Expanded to the size of the market, deregulation makes things riskier, but in the long term more profitable. So you have bubbles and recessions. Stricter regulation makes things more stable, but there would be less economic growth.

As with all thing, the trick is finding the right balance.

[misko27]

Strictly speaking, the two types of investement are "short" and "long". Now long is a familiar type, buy something that is low in value, and sell it later with the expectation that it will grow in value, a Real Life example being keeping a baseball card, or investing in a buisiness. Not exactly "safe", but it could be thought of as such.

The more riskyish one is "short" investing, where something is currently of high value, is borrowed from someone and sold. Later, when value has died down, you repurchase it and return it. Real life examples include borrowing a new highly popular videogame from a friend who isgoing somewhere for a while, selling it, then repurchasing when everyone already has copies and price has died down, or selling orange juice futures from a different company and buying them back when the market dips. Obviously, the addition of borrowing makes short somewhat riskier, as It may not die down in price in time.

tl;dr: "Long" = Buy low, Sell high; "Short" = Sell high Buy Low.

[10ebbor10]

I'm pretty sure that without the recession America would've mostly have been arguing about social issues during the first few years and economic issues (such as Wallstreet excess) would've taken a back seat, although the wars in the middle east almost certainly guarantee we'd still be arguing over the deficit. Whether we entered a recession or not I think there's something that's inevitable for the country to deal with: the consequences of global warming. We're at the point where even if all of humanity miraculously stopped producing CO2 we'd see a high frequency of natural disasters due to what we've already produced. But since that drastic change is impossible we need to be prepared for worse. A lot worse. The cost in lives and money is going to continue increasing. Either people on the East Coast need to begin looking into new methods of building cities to withstand tropical storms or they need to consider moving further inland where they won't be constantly under siege by the Atlantic. Moving further north may also be in the interest of us who live in the southernmost regions and Canadians might be building their own border wall in a few decades.

We should also do everything we can to follow Germany's example and convert our energy production to renewable clean energy sources. The sooner the better. I am however unsure that we can do so without sufficient outrage being brought against the industrial powers vested in the fossil fuel business and their servants in DC. Half of the country seems content in pretending this isn't happening or that human CO2 production isn't responsible. And other countries like China will be reticent to compromise their growth efforts if the USA doesn't make its own efforts to find alternative energy sources.

Don't forget about the droughts destroying harvests, possible floods and much more. Also, some scientists have been retracing old numbers and calculating the effects using common day prediction systems, and they have found that the models that give the most accurate effects, also predict the worst. A six degree temperature increase for 2100 is being predicted, and I'm pretty sure that cutting emissions, even if done on a massive scale, is not going to suffice. We'll be getting some interesting geoengineering projects in the next fifty years.

[Guardian G.I.]

Oooh oooh! Will we have one of these in the near future? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGreatPoliticsMessUp. Worse, how about this? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhyWereBummedCommunismFell.

That depends on how bad the economic crisis will get.