tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28078378.post1706445993015966026..comments2023-10-30T11:00:05.243+00:00Comments on Bacon Butty: What are you optimistic about?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28078378.post-72400157414814472702007-01-16T00:19:00.000+00:002007-01-16T00:19:00.000+00:00hold on, the english cricket team are playin again...hold on, the english cricket team are playin against the kiwis, so there is hope yet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28078378.post-18693502399988133152007-01-10T19:16:00.000+00:002007-01-10T19:16:00.000+00:00I think it was Eisenhower who said whenever faced ...I think it was Eisenhower who said whenever faced with seemingly overwhelmingly situations, he reassured himself with the words of his former grade school history teacher that, “despite setbacks, the general course of human history has been upwards”. It’s true that in almost ever field human progress has outstripped the conceivable expectations at the time. Few so called fears have been realised. Perhaps with the exception of climate change, it’s hard today to conceive of any area where things are likely to lead to falling welfare over a due period of time. So, some things I’m optimistic about….<br /><br />- the capacity of Africa to lift itself out of poverty independent of the development planners. My prediction would be growth will be higher in the continent of Africa in 2007 than in at least 90% of all highly-industrialised countries; and that it will continue to be so, on average, throughout the entire period to 2020<br /><br />- that material standards of living will continue to rise at pace throughout the industrialised world so that, for example, my present material standards will appear somewhat impoverished to my children, and distinctly unrecognisable to my children’s children. More immediately, average incomes will continue to rise; average working hours continue to fall<br /><br />- that human longevity will continue to increase, decade-on-decade, both in terms of life-span and quality-adjusted life years<br /><br />- that the UK will meet all its so-called crippling long-term financial liabilities – including on pensions and health care throughout the first half of the 21st Century– without any significant financial restructuring, fiscal catastrophe, or rise in tax take<br /><br />- that there will be no crisis in democracy, but rather that there will be a evolutionary transfer of democracy to the public through new mechanisms and <br /><br />- that, in the future, the present stage of development of internet will be seen as the ‘incubation period’ with the capabilities of current frontrunners (YouTube, Skype etc) taken to ever higher levels<br /><br />- that, rather than us facing a future of crisis in office working, companies – driven by their competition for talented workforce – will increasingly shift to having smaller core areas of the business and outsource more of the non-core work. This will leave us ever more flexible and freer to make active choices about how, when and where we work, enabling us to enjoy power over how we divide our working lives in a way that has never been experienced before<br /><br />- that internationalism, after facing a period of stress with rapidly shifting tectonic power plates over the more immediate period, will revive itself and become resurgent over the forces of unilateralism and isolationism by the time the next decade is out<br /><br />- and, lastly, that a visitor to Britain well in the 2030s will still be able to experience rolling green hills, village cricket, country pubs serving great local beer, a unique satirical sense of humour, quaint antiquities, and oh, some rather dodgy sporting talents…<br /><br />DKAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28078378.post-12302260009704308362007-01-09T09:44:00.000+00:002007-01-09T09:44:00.000+00:00Wow. I agree. I cant wait until my mother has to...Wow. I agree. I cant wait until my mother has to confess religion was just all a bad joke.Jeannettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03010819863287865243noreply@blogger.com