By Lee E. Warren B.A., D.D. (© 1998 PLIM REPORT)
(Feel free to copy and circulate this article for non-commercial purposes provided the Web site and author are cited.)
PLIM Book Review
Welcome to the PLIM Book Review. For the first time in 1998, we are adding this new section to the "PLIM REPORT" magazine. One of the ways, beyond actual experiences, that you can expand your mental horizons is through reading. From time to time we will review a book for your enlightenment.
In this issue of the "PLIM REPORT" the book Trends 2000 by Gerald Celente (Warner Books © 1997) will be reviewed. This book describes the 3rd millennium based on various trends dominating our present time and which Celente predicts will continue into the 21st century. One does not need seers or prophets to observe the rapid transformations that are taking place in society today. There is not a segment of our society or government that is immunized. Changes are inevitable. We should be asking the following questions. What changes will occur? How do we adjust? What are our options? Now the answers Celente provides in his book are why we recommend that anyone who will not die in the next few minutes, or is not currently brain dead, read Trends 2000.
Information for the future
Trends 2000 points out that in order to make changes one has to have information. The main source of information in the U.S. is basically disseminated through the television media, which is preoccupied with tabloid junk news. The O.J. Simpson trial, President Clintons women, or any sex scandal dominate TV news. This type of coverage does nothing to help us make informed decisions about the radical changes that are getting ready to transpire in the country. "Junk news is the food for thought what junk food is to real food. It has no nutritional value but is addictive. & the public did not notice that on every issue of real consequence, it was being disinformed, misinformed, and uninformed (p. 33)."
Economics
Trends 2000 points out that wages for the middle class have declined 20% over the last 15 years. Most of the newly created jobs pay less than the old jobs that were lost to technology and downsizing. The Department of Labor found out that only about 40% of Americans were middle class instead of the 70% previously thought. Only the top 20% of the taxpayers enjoyed the current economic boom. Now Trends 2000 points out that by 1995 "economic fallback," or earning less than one once did, was a fact of life for the masses of Americans.
Another problem that Americans have deluded themselves into ignoring is the $5.4 trillion dollar debt. Now 30% of every tax dollar collected goes toward the interest on the debt (see "Jubilee and Debt in the U.S.A. Economy," p. 12 in the 1997 Vol. 6, No. 6 issue of the "PLIM REPORT"). Social security and the defense will have some big problems in the future.
International Economic Crisis
Trends 2000 points out the present currency crisis in Asia was foreseen and written about in a quarterly issue of the Trends Journal published by researchers of the Trends Research Institute. Due to low interest rates abroad, cheap U.S. dollars, cheap labor, and no regulatory laws, the 3rd world is being exploited. The profits from these companies were bought back to the U.S.A., which was one of the factors that caused the U.S. stock market to skyrocket. China and other Asians nations, as well as the U.S.A., are going to have some big problems with their economies. Simply put, no one is solvent enough to bail out anyone else. Will there be a return to gold as a standard, for all world currencies are falling?
Environmental problems
One of the greatest problems facing mankind in terms of environmental issues is the disposal of nuclear waste. No one knows what do with the nuclear waste from nuclear reactors. In the U.S.A. reactors are just too costly to operate and many have been closed. In old Communist Russia there are over 40 unsafe reactors which cannot be closed, for they are needed for power. Now none of the Western powers, Europe, or the U.S.A., have enough money to make them safe or to close them down and build new ones. Trends 2000 states that we are all hostages, especially Europe, to another Chernobyl reactor explosion.
The overuse of herbicides and pesticide also are causing a host of health problems.
Education
College graduates are learning that a diploma is not a guaranteed ticket for success. Trends 2000 points out that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that 18 million college graduates are expected to join the labor market between 1995 and 2005, but there are only jobs for 14 million graduates. This prediction assumes that there is no economic downturn.
Health
Trends 2000 points out that there are many trends that are coming to a head. For example, the medical community is well aware that a crisis is developing in bacteria resistance. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics has caused an increase in drug resistant diseases, such as pneumonia, that are becoming untreatable. This fact was pointed out in an article called "Emergent Diseases," in the 1997 Vol. 6, No. 5 issue of the "PLIM REPORT."
New ways of health delivery will be sought, for even though the cost of corporate HMOs has been reduced, everyone is dissatisfied with their service. Instead of receiving a doctors prescribed treatment, patients only receive as much as the insurance company will cover.
As baby boomers enter their 50s and 60s, there will be an unprecedented search for alternative medicines, health foods, and remedies to maintain a healthy body.
Technology
Trends 2000 shows that technological innovation will continue at breath taking speed. One of the great changes will occur in sources of energy, such as cold fusion or free energy. These innovations will make fossil fuel, oil, gas, coal, and nuclear reactors obsolete. Homes will have their own power supply and not need to be hooked into the electric company. Many energy industries and oil rich countries will lose their revenue to new technology and become dinosaurs.
Family Values and the Community
Trends 2000 points out that the family model of the 1930s-50s is DEAD. The family structure has radically changed since the end of World War II and will continue to transform into the next millennium. The Second World War brought an end to the extended family living together. After WWII, prosperity came and with it fragmentation of the family. Divorce began to skyrocket in the 1960s and is currently at a 50% rate. In addition to women becoming the heads of households, about one-third of the babies being born are born to single mothers. Trends 2000 points out that 50% of couples under 40 years of age are co-habitating. So new models of the family will continue to develop into the 21st century. The Ozzie and Harriet model is gone forever, for it never existed.
Terrorists and Russia
Now many think that communism is dead, but Trends 2000 shows that there will be a Reformation in communism. Their current economic system will not be able to provide the masses with livable wages and the current corruption does not help matters.
This same situation exists within the Islamic countries, which will spawn a great deal of international terrorism. The western countries will be the target, for they are seen as wanting to maintain the status-quo that has not benefitted the masses.
Now these are just a few topics and issues Trends 2000 deals with. This book is a must to those that want to see some of the problems and opportunities of the 21st century.