Futurama

I was having lunch the other day with a client from the U.K., a nation grappling with the current Conservative government’s austerity mandate that I blogged about recently. It was a typically warm, sunny, blue-sky-infested day in Los Angeles. He noted with a sigh that there is virtually no remaining “build a new business and watch it grow” entrepreneurial spirit left in England these days. Sure, the British financial sector is a major player in the overall (abysmal?) European economy, but Brits were far less sanguine about their future. He noted that there were no great manufacturers or product categories where England excelled to any significant level anymore. “We just don’t make anything,” he said sadly. It’s a story I hear all too often from my counterparts in Europe these days (o kay, Germans might have a differing view). My client is eying buying a home in LA and relocating his thriving and growing business here.

Why? California is on the edge of bankruptcy? The dollar, while it might look good vis-à-vis European currencies, is set to tank against many Asian denominations. The revaluation of the Chinese renminbi and the dollar will only make it that much easier for the Chinese to buy more of our companies, resources and technology. Why wouldn’t my client opt for the “Asian obvious”? What is it about the United States in general and California in particular – other than southern California weather – that would draw the thought of relocating to the top of his priority list? He’ll have to drive on the other side of the road! Despite my many blogs about the issues we face and the harsh economic realities that will linger, perhaps for decades, there is something about this nation that defies quantifiable logic: we actually believe things will get better and that Americans, imbued with entrepreneurial optimism and a generalized notion of valid hope, can and will, through the aggregation of individual choice and hard work, turn it all around.

An April poll of 1,546 adult Americans as to their views of the future, released on June 22^nd by The Pew Research Center (in conjunction with the Smithsonian magazine on their 40^th anniversary), entitled Life in 2050, Amazing Science, Familiar Threats; Public Sees a Future Full of Promise and Peril, tells us more about who we are as a people than it suggests what life will really be like in 2050. Sure there are the doubts and fears. 58% of those surveyed think another world war is either definite or probable. The number of those who envision a large-scale (nuclear) terrorist attack on the U.S. sits at 53%, and 72% believe that another energy crisis is inevitable. We’re pretty evenly split on whether the environment will improve, but 60% have less hope for the quality of the o ceans. Two thirds of us believe that global climate change will result in a warmer planet (with younger people more sure of this change than their elders). While slightly more than half of us are skeptical that China will achieve the supremacy she seeks, but more than half of us believe that the U.S. will be less important in the future.

The stunning statistics, however, relate to what will be possible in the future and that we believe it will be better: “Today, 64% say they are very or somewhat optimistic about life for themselves and their family over the next 40 years, while 61% are optimistic about the future of the United States. Moreover, 56% say the U.S. economy will be stronger than it is today.” Wow! And we are in a lingering recession. If you can visualize it, we believe, you can achieve it. 68% think race relations will improve, and look at what technological possibilities we think are in our future: 81% believe we will have conversations with our computers, 71% think cancer will be cured (although this is a reduction from the last poll), 53% believe space travel will be generally available, and 66% see artificial (“bionic”) limbs as outperforming real one s!

We believe in ourselves. We have risen from economic disasters and political calamity before. We take chances and are not held back by notions of class or archaic rules. And if we are to have a better future, the next step is now. As Captain Jean-Luc Picard was wont to say in the popular Star Trek; the Next Generation television series: “Make it so.

I’m Peter Dekom, and under all the criticisms, I believe too.