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In 18 years, a college degree could cost upwards of $500,000, if today’s pricing trends continue, according to CNBC.
Robots are taking over human jobs at an alarmingly fast rate. Climate change is already threatening American coastline. A growing number of American workers are freelance, instead of full time.
Are you alarmed yet? I’m not trying to up your anxiety or rewrite the lyrics to the R.E.M. hit It’s the End of the World. Instead, I want to take a look over the coming weeks at what is really happening with the future of our country, our culture, and our world. Technology and other modern forces are shifting the nature of our lives in so many ways.
I’d like to use this space to separate fact from fiction, and figure out how these trends will impact all facets of our home and work lives. Some of it may sound alarming, but there may also be some bright-side alternatives to what looks like sheer gloom and doom.
There is a wealth of stories worth telling about the people working hard to shape our future, and reinventing the way that we live 21st century lives. Businesses in Silicon Valley are working on ways to solve problems you never even knew existed. There are thousands of entrepreneurs, authors and politicians invested in shaping the world’s future. Innovation will never be complete.
Change can be scary. I have a 4-year-old son, so I think every day about what his world as an adult might look like. Will we be paying more for his college education than we did for our house? Will a college education even be necessary for his career? Will driverless cars arrive before he needs to earn his lesson?
These are just a few of the things I wonder about as my son gets older. It would be silly to dismiss any of these questions out of hand. While these uncertainties are serious, they may also have a way of working themselves out.
Our future is happening faster than we think. Many of the problems we face will be dealt with regardless of who is in charge of the government.
The better we understand the issues, and can dig through the hype and the misconceptions, the better off our lives will be. I’m hoping to add to the conversation about what our future will look like, so we all can better understand what is at play.
Matt Brennan is a marketing copywriter, occasional parenting writer, and journalist in the Chicago area. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
We truly are at a major shift point in history. We can look at a number of facts including this one: The world population was estimated to have reached 7,500,000,000 at 16:21(UTC) on April 24, 2017. The United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion in the year 2100. Every person added wants what each of us wants, clean air, clean water, an ability to support ourselves and our families. Yet, we still are living with a story in our minds that we can “be fruitful and multiply” indefinitely and the products of our lifestyle are not going… Read more »