i always had a positive outlook about the future, but these days things have become a bit worse , for instance the economy . cost of living rising is on the rise , companies laying off employees and what not. tbh i'm a bit skeptical now. what do you think
– Global population is still rising. Since all people need food and shelter, those would naturally continue to become more scarce and therefor expensive for the foreseeable future. Especially rents, since living space is more difficult to optimize than food or even medicine production.
– Population growth is very unequally distributed around the globe. Some countries like Nigeria have an extremely high birth rate while most European countries for instance have a slightly negative one. This leads to huge migratory waves from the former to the latter, especially since long–distance travel has become increasingly easier in the past decades. Migration always comes with difficulties for all involved parties (finding shelter, employment, (language) teachers, policemen, etc. for immigrants is never free).
– Climate change reduces the amount of habitable and arable land, especially in countries closer to the equator. Countries like Pakistan report new record temperatures each passing year, making certain regions there permanently inhabitable in time. The people living there will probably have no choice but to migrate (see above). Even regions not becoming inhospitable experience increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions (for example the extreme bitter cold on the USA‘s east coast last year), making life a bit more challenging.
– Not many probably remember, but computers were originally developed to reduce the amount of working time for all people. Instead, the trend so far has been to use the time gained to work even more. I know many people, myself included, who do not support this trend unconditionally, and think this global working arms race should slow down or even stop, especially as AI continuously improves and may have influences on the job market not yet foreseeable. Many people I know nowadays also seem to value some free time over a high income.
Conclusion: I‘m actually not that pessimistic, because all of these issues are being registered and discussed worldwide, so humanity as a whole will probably find ways to deal with them in time. Though I must admit to be a bit biased, since my country is way wealthier and politically more stable than most others. Local trends also are always a different matter tHan global ones, I guess.
