[dbarberic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n the year 2006: Online TV, secession, survivalism
By Marissa Newhall, USA TODAY
The trendmeisters have spoken, and the news isn't great.

The Trends Research Institute releases its "Top Trends 2006" Thursday, the 15th report of its kind from the upstate New York-based social, economic and political trend forecasting think tank. Despite favorable predictions for labor unions and environmental concerns, Americans are headed for a culturally and economically dismal time next year if these predictions are on the money.

One surprising trend, says research institute director Gerald Celente, is that this generation is looking back in time for inspiration, a backlash against the poor quality of recent movies and music. "When the baby boomers were growing up," he says, "they didn't look back to the past — the politicians, the actors, the music — for guidance or to find their own voice." But this generation is finding "heroes in Lennon and Dylan. This is a first in American history."

Other predicted trends:

•The survival business will boom for the first time since the Cold War as Americans perceive their government as incapable of protecting them from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

•Technology will continue to empower self-reliant, "off the grid" survivalists, who will seek to avoid payment of fuel, water, electricity and telephone bills.

•Citizen-driven movements for states to break away from the union will arise.

•Global sales of products "made in the USA" will suffer after media coverage of Hurricane Katrina, which greatly damaged the world's view of the United States.

•Online TV, the ultimate in media convergence, will signal the decline of the communication industry's monopoly on broadcast news and entertainment.

•Real estate values in rural areas will continue to rise as it becomes fashionable to downsize from mega-mansions to log cabins.

•Entertainment that pokes fun at the consumption habits of the wealthy elite will become popular as reality TV's projection of "real life" becomes increasingly inaccurate.

•A new American labor movement will boost union power for workers in the lowest strata of the U.S. economy.

•Hometown economies will benefit as fuel costs soar and consumers become less willing to drive farther to do their errands; if a pandemic such as bird flu hits, people will patronize local merchants to avoid crowds.

•Discovering reliable new sources of alternative energy will be the primary drive in science and invention.

•Americans will address environmental concerns such as global warming, food safety and recycling.

[newdamage]

A different set of predictions...

* Americans will continue to be bombarded by the media in every facet of their life, and will continue to believe they need the greatest, newest, shiniest piece of crap.

* SUVs and Minivans with only 1-2 people in them will continue to dominate road (and block my line of sight in traffic).

* The Gov't and Fed will continue to attempt to perform nothing short of black magic on the economy in attempt to keep people spending. In the face of rising gov't deficits expect more talk of tax breaks, tax cuts, and a big smile and a thumbs up from the White House.

* GM and Ford will continue to lay off workers and cut costs, but still fail to innovate and product remotely attractive cars, and will file for bankruptcy within 2 years.

* People will stubbornly tolerate $3 gas this coming summer, and turn to their credit cards to get them where ever they need to go come Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

* Peak Oil, Peak Energy, and Global Warming will continue to find its way into mass media, but nobody will be able to do anything about it due to the depth in which big gov't and big corporations are tied to each other in search of profits in order to appease Wall Street.

* The big media and telecommunications companies will attempt to fight off the decentralization of entertainment and content for yet another year, while ignoring the waves of people that continue to suck down content illegally (with no good legal option yet).

* The debt bubble will be controlled barely for another year as the credit companies keep people afloat in a happy wave of refinancing offers and low introductory rates. The debt will move around, but it won't be dealt with.

... call me cynical, but I have coworkers who admit that something is drastically wrong in this country, but are too scared to leave the status quo to do anything about it. So they go back to watching Survivor, enduring long daily commutes in rush hour, and go shopping for "stuff" in attempt to replace the lack of healthy emotional comfort they no longer receive from the few precious minutes they actually spend with their families.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dbarberic', '
')While the article does not specifically mention Peak Oil, I find it interesting that the trends forecasted in the article align with forecasts by those who are peak oil aware.

[Leanan]

I think a lot of people are simply not going to be able to continue on as usual. The winter heating bills are going to be brutal for those on tight budgets. And credit cards and re-financing won't be the answer, with interest rates rising. There may be people living "off the grid" not because they're suvivalists, but just to survive.

[Eli]

Well I bet the Author has been reading stuff by Kunslter and others and is very peak oil aware.

They obviously see the energy crisis that is coming ( already here really) and have been reading PO stuff to figure out what 2006 is going to look like.

[UIUCstudent01]

I think most people will read it as if "secession" is a dummy point to make the rest of the predictions look a little ridiculous..

Of course, it says that movements for secesssion will increase rather than actual secession..

[clifman]

Vermont ain't waitin' 'till '06:
[web]http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/11/1780860.php[/web]

[BO]

Eli wrote:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ell I bet the Author has been reading stuff by Kunslter and others and is very peak oil aware.

They obviously see the energy crisis that is coming ( already here really) and have been reading PO stuff to figure out what 2006 is going to look like.

[benzoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dbarberic', 'â')€¢Technology will continue to empower self-reliant, "off the grid" survivalists, who will seek to avoid payment of fuel, water, electricity and telephone bills.

[sameu]

from their ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MOVEMENT section:

"The most dramatic among them, and those with the greatest speculative investment and IPO opportunities, may be found in research and development in hydrino power, cold fusion, zero point energy, charged clusters and permanent magnets .... "


I thought hydrino power was a big hoax

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sameu', 'f')rom their ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MOVEMENT section:

"The most dramatic among them, and those with the greatest speculative investment and IPO opportunities, may be found in research and development in hydrino power, cold fusion, zero point energy, charged clusters and permanent magnets .... "


I thought hydrino power was a big hoax