Opinion Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors, and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
As America celebrated its Bicentennial in 1976, writers, students, business leaders, futurists, and newspaper columnists took a swing at predicting what life would be like 50 years later, in 2026.
Some of their guesses were surprisingly close. Others missed by a country mile. A few others were simply wonderfully 1970s.
National Geographic gathered “five noted thinkers” in 1976, including Isaac Asimov, Buckminster Fuller, Edmund Bacon, Gerard Piel, and Richard Babcock, to imagine the future. They talked about cities making a comeback, electric transportation, energy challenges, population changes, and even underground or space-based living. Asimov, naturally, showed the biggest sci-fi optimism, imagining people connected electronically and perhaps someday living beyond Earth.
Local newspapers and school projects around the country got in on the fun, too.
One 1976 article imagined Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2026 with more electronics manufacturing, more specialized jobs, and even a shorter work week – perhaps 25 hours a week, depending on the needs and wishes of workers. (That one may not have fully arrived yet, but I guess you have to admire the optimism.)
Another prediction claimed environmental problems would improve dramatically by 2026, with cleaner air, less urban sprawl, fewer landfills, and healthier waterways. In the same article, experts still worried about nuclear energy, chemical spills, and whether people would manage growth wisely (some debates never really leave us).
Inflation was another popular worry. One 1978 prediction warned that if prices kept rising at 6% per year, a $700 color TV could cost $11,200 by 2026, a $5,000 car could cost $80,000, and a $15 pair of shoes could be $240.
Transportation predictions were a mixed bag. One airline executive predicted a Seattle-to-Chicago ticket might cost $820 by 2026 (actually, about $250 to $450), while supersonic aircraft would be flying across the country and giant planes carrying up to 1,700 passengers would be the norm.
Predictably, the best predictions came from kids.
In one 1976 student essay, 10-year-old Becky Allen imagined that people might be living in space, driving airplanes or cars, and dealing with pollution everywhere. Another student pictured families living in egg-shaped plastic houses, getting dressed by pressing buttons, eating meals in pill form, and letting a family computer named “Eric” do the housework in nine seconds.
Fifty years later, we may not have flying cars in every driveway or robot maids in every kitchen. We are not commuting from moon colonies, and most of us are still waiting on that 25-hour work week. But we do carry tiny supercomputers in our pockets. We can video chat with family across the country. Cars are becoming not just electric, but autonomous. Medical technology has advanced beyond the imaginations of 1976 into areas such as surgical robotics and gene therapy. Information is available almost instantly (for better and worse).
And communities like ours still gather, adapt, laugh, remember, and look ahead.
What will we predict for 2076? Who, in 50 years, will be laughing and smiling at our 2026 selves, while also maybe giving us a little credit for dreaming big?