Remember when the future was bright?

How many people remember looking to the future with anticipation and amazement at what a wonderful world it could be?

The future we envisioned and hoped for was filled with wonder. There’d be flying cars and superfast trains carrying passengers coast-to-coast. As measles and polio were eradicated, poverty would be reduced to almost nothing. We’d live in a land of plenty – plenty of food, plenty of housing, plenty of jobs, plenty of the good life. People would have learned to live together better regardless of race, religion, heritage, or orientation. Everyone could live their own lives without fear.

Sure, it was an idyllic picture we viewed through rose-colored glasses because we imagined a better future, a better life for everyone. It may not have been a realistic future, but at least we thought a version of it was possible and strived for it.

Man were we wrong.

A quarter of the way into the 21st century, instead of having a better world we’ve regressed to the darkest portion of the 20thcentury as our rulers push us back farther to the gilded age of the 19th century. They want to return to the time of haves and have-nots.

The majority of Americans already are one crisis away from joining the hundreds of thousands of homeless people. One illness can put a family into financial bankruptcy. Family farms that once fed America are on the endangered species list, replaced by agricultural corporations. The cost of living exceedswages as people live check-to-check. “Experts” tell them to save and invest money for the future when their future extends as far as their next paycheck.

This is not the future we saw by any means. This is not what our forebears strived to achieve. They wanted a better life for the next generation, believing they would continueprogressing and leave an even better world for future generations. Somewhere along the way, that changed. Instead of looking toward the future, people looked for what’s in it for them. Forget the future, what can I get for me now became the mantra for our culture.

There still are optimists who think we can reach a brighter future, that we can correct course and make improvements for a better world. But their voices are overwhelmed. At least 80 years of progress since the end of World War II – cultural, social, industrial, and political progress – is being wiped out today. Despite what the propagators of this regressive movement say, they don’t care about the future. Their concern is now and how much they can put in their own pockets. If that means dismantling our country and reducing our republic to a tinhorn dictatorship, so be it.

You can count on one finger what the current regime claims it’s done to boost the American economy. It announced a company that will inject $100 billion into our economy by making chips here. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the regime thought it makes potato chips. Prices aren’t going down. In response to egg prices still rising, the secretary of agriculture suggests getting chickens. Maybe they could deal with increasing beef prices by raising a cow or two, too. A reasonable idea for rural areas, but not very practical for those in urban areas.

Jobs aren’t being created; in fact, they’re adding to unemployment. A broken healthcare system isn’t getting fixedas medical research and care delivery is brought to a screeching halt. National infrastructure continues to deteriorate. This isn’t the 21st century we anticipated, but it’s the hot mess we have. I hope we survive to see America back on track to a bright future instead of a megalomaniac’s dystopic vision.

What kind of future would I want to see? A positive one, of course. Although it might seem like it lately, I’m not a “negative Nance.” I’ve taken the Briggs-Stratton test, or whatever it’s called, and according to it my personality trait I see the potential in things, the positive in how things could be. As far as I know, the future I picture is viable, it’s just going to take a massive national change of attitude.

In my future, we have a national high-speed rail system so people can affordably travel anywhere in America and local communities all have affordable transit systems. Countries all around the world already have such systems while we’ve let our rail system deteriorate. We’d still have automobiles, efficient ones with alternative power systems in addition to petroleum. Making them affordable and practical is the key.

We can take examples from other countries and incorporate alternative energy sources into our national power grid. Despite naysayers, solar power can be effective and efficient, and it can be incorporated practically and esthetically into the environment. Treated with respect, nuclear power is efficient. Again, despite naysayers, wind power has a place in our energy system. Note I said these could be incorporated into the national power grid, not replace it. All of these can supplement current energy sources.

The future I envision has universal healthcare. Rather than being exceptional, the only industrial nation without universal healthcare, every American should get medical care. To borrow a popular example, rather than pay $8,000 a year for health insurance you pay $2,000 in healthcare taxes and keep $6,000 in your pocket. You can buy additional health insurance if you want, but it’s not mandatory. And treatment decisions would be made by physicians and medical professionals, not insurance bean counters.

I’d like to see a future with equitable tax rates. The greater the income, the greater the tax rate. No deductions, no exceptions. If a worker at the bottom pays a 25 percent tax rate on his $25,000 income, then Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerburg, Warren Buffett, and all billionaires at the top pay a 25 percent tax rate on their $1 billion incomes, no exceptions, no deductions.

It would be great to have a future where people get along better with each other. A future when everyone is accepted for who they are, where people are just people without being pigeonholed into categories. I’m not talking about an “I’d like to teach the world to sing and live in harmony” future. That requires a change in the human heart, something no government or business can do. But at least have a future when what color you are, what heritage you have, what you believe in, and who you love doesn’t matter because we’re all in this together.

Of course, I’d still like a future with those flying cars, too.