This week brings the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one. Transitions make for interesting times.
Here are some predictions and hope for the next 10 years.
Please remember that hope is in the mind and action does not necessarily follow:
* Social media will require regulation to winnow out hate speech, stop selling personal data without permission and provide protection against hackers gaining access to personal data.
* Education will go through radical reform. As the desire for a college degree diminishes, debt incurred increases and value of a college degree lessens, the community colleges and high schools will adapt their guidance processes and curricula to produce more graduates with needed skills in the blue collar workforce.
* Transportation will change, as electric, self-guided vehicles become more prevalent. Tolls and parking restrictions in big cities will expand the use of mass transit.
* We will tire of polarizing politicians and pundits. Leaders will emerge who can work across aisles and oceans to solve problems.
* The population of the United States will become more diverse and the birth rate will continue to drop. Income inequality will be minimally leveled by taxation.
* The faith-based community will undergo some reformation or will continue to lose young people. The social fabric of a community can be truly enriched if messages of unity, commonality and empathy are the main themes. There are many paths to a good afterlife in a world with eight billion people. That is the message that people of faith should use in their columns and teaching the faithful.
* Relationships between men and women – including LGBTQ folks – will evolve, as women stand up to abusers and demand equal treatment.
* The corruption of the drug industry that led to the opioid crisis will only be controlled when the top dogs of the medical/pharmaceutical purveyors of pills go to jail. Billion dollar settlements don’t move the ethical needle.
* Politics and electing leaders who lead with courage is hard to predict until after next November. Let’s agree to leave that subject alone until the state primary is upon us.
* Environmental issues including global warming/climate change/sea level rise are all upon us. Will a teenager named Greta Thunberg vanquish the fossil fuel industry? Is she the next David fighting Goliath? Whatever happens, this epic battle will change our lives in the next decade.
* Entertainment will evolve beyond virtual reality, which is only available to a wealthy few or people with internet speeds faster than the cold molasses we get in Graham County. Television will remain our main source of entertainment, but absent, government-antitrust regulation will be costly and the content will be ancient B-movies.
* The economy won’t stay strong forever. The Federal Reserve will run out of magic and our ability to act on a worldwide basis is greatly diminished by trade wars and tariffs. The return to earth will be swift and hurt many people.
There is a lot to think about as the new decade begins.
Best wishes to you and yours and my gratitude to The Graham Star for publishing this column and to my readers as well.
Roger Carlton is a columnist for The Graham Star.