Oops. Various factors.
Most important..birth control and less interference from religions on familiy planning matters. Unfortunatley, this has also made it easier to have teen births, out of wedlock births etc. But nevertheless, the population is declining ..almost everywhere..or the rate of growth is dropping quite rapidly.

Internet -- people can learn skills, learn languages, communicate with experts..diagnose diseases, learn some reading skills, get ideas on solar power etc. at the click of a mouse. Of course the down side is that terrorism, etc. can also be rapidly spread.

Almost free energy -- they are making windmills in Camaroon out of car batteries and probably old beer cans. Can America be far behind? We are on the verge of very free energy..I remember, living on the Columbia River, how electricty was so cheap as to be almost free when I was young. It will be that way in Siberia and France and Paraguay very soon with solar, wind, tide, etc.

Lowered consumerism. A lot of energy, family working energy, breadwinner energy, went into things like newer cars, keeping up with the JOnes, suppporting 8 children instead of 2...outfitting teenage girls. Now some girls have entire wardrobes made out of about 2 square yards of fiber so there is savings right there. Also, they say with the new fibers that clothes do not wear out like they used to.

Mass culture..McDonald's and Barbies and Shake and Bake. No one is fond of all that they stand for, but it is easier to have unified whatevers if cultures sort of loose their edges..not that I think this is a good thing, but there will be some advantages and fewer conflicts etc.

Vaccinations and the chain of refrigeration to support it.

Understanding of diabetes, which is behind so many diseases of the industrial world...including heart disease, probably cancer...and it all has to do with diet...and too many carbs, refined or unrefined, helathy or unhealthy..for a particular metabolism. ONce that is understood better, and most of the information is in place right now, health problems in USA and elsewhere will melt away. Watch my words.

Microloans--the guy who developed them has calculated how much it would take, family by family, to eradicate poverty and it is doable, via rickshaws, and taco stands and village cell phones owned by widows etc.

Availability of morphone for pain control. Those Afghan farmers could be raising enough to medicate the world if WWIII breaks out.

Pharmaceutical and natural remedies for illnesses. Cinnamon for diabetics, tumeric for inflammatory processes etc.

Science will explode. Medicine will explode.

We will have little devices to ride in that do not require roads..just float a few feet off the grounds..like the ferries do already.

HOpefully we will reach the tipping point on understanding how behaviors cause society to break down. Behavior can be interferred with through architecture, lighting, visible police, the talking telephone poles etc. We will not be afraid to tell teens that it is hurting them, and the taxpayers, and most importantly, their children, if they have babies when they are unmarried and can not afford a child.

That is the key right there to poverty. Responsible reproduction. Responsible in not overpopulating the plant, responsible in taking care of your own children, perhaps with help from society, but again with responsible parenting. Adoption and foster care support. Some ability for foster parents (perhaps they have this) to say I want to choose the children I foster because I know I really at this point can not take either very depressed passive ones, or very aggressive violent ones or whatever. If there were more choice in the matter of foster parenting, I think there would be way more foster parents.

I believe, with no evidence whatsover, that we will get smart about building out of sticks and cardboard and return to stone type construction. Especially in hurricane and tornado zones..fire-prone places. THat is the dumbest thing aobut America I think...that and the fact we can not move goods to disaster areas or poor areas easily..if you want to get something to the victims of a Cameroon mudslide, how do you go about it? First of all you have the Red Cross or someone saying don't send goods, send money. Heard that in Katrina...well, trucks with water were turned back. Swiftboaters were turned back. We have to have an attitude of solving problems rather than being obstructionists.

HOpefully a good person like General HOnore in charge of Fema orwhatever, with knowledge that your first line of defense in many situations is going to be the young people, particulary young men. All students need to be trained in first aid, disaster prepardness and disaster responsiveness and be prepared to use chain saws, cook for crowds, administer first aid etc., do crowd control..

Well, that is allfor now...but it is all there ready for implementation..which I think Obama will be good at..very good..except for standing up to our enemies...which might fade away. mg