David:
Well, another year has passed. What do you think the next year has in store for us? What are your predictions for 2017?
Doug:
How could anyone have any idea what 2017 will be like? Our President-Elect continues to hold rallies, and uses Twitter to throw out 140 characters of misspelled, scary quips. I really have no idea---and having no idea makes for uncertain times. I am not hopeful.
David:
But many Americans are hopeful. Especially small business owners.
Obamacare will disappear. A new health-care system will replace it with a whole new world of insurances available on the internet across state lines. You'll be able to compare prices and benefits while sitting at your desk at home. There will be sites that will review different companies and policies to allow you to get just what you need. It will be much better, and much more affordable. The new version of health-care reform will fulfill the promises that Obama put forth, but failed to deliver. It may prove that we had to experience the failures of Obamacare to really decide what we truly needed.
Doug:
The only thing that will ever make healthcare much more affordable is to make it cheaper. And the only way to make healthcare cheaper is to regulate costs. But that won't happen for many years.
David:
Not true at all. You can look at procedures that are purely elective for example. Corrective eye surgery or plastic surgery are not covered by insurance, so there is competition within the marketplace. Prices for those procedures continue to drop because of that competition. When people know the costs, and they have skin in the game, they shop around. Of course, that won't work for everything. Emergencies will still occur, and you'll go to the closest emergency room.
You might be careful about your suggestions. Now that the cost of higher education has the attention of Washington lawmakers, regulating the cost of higher education may become a reality. I predict there will be legislation this year addressing the costs of education in some fashion.
The economy will continue to improve. Businesses will begin building new plants and factories here at home, and even foreign companies will follow suit. The main reason for this will be simple logistics. If you can build the goods here and sell them here, you save shipping costs. If taxes are lowered, and expensive regulations minimized, the climate for growth will improve. Economic growth this year will exceed 3.5%.
Doug:
Without an increased minimum wage, many Americans won't be able to buy stuff. Without a strong middle class, we won't be making products for us, but for other countries.
David:
I don't believe there is any data to support what you've just said. America is currently the largest importer of goods in the world. We have huge trade deficits. Getting more people to work will not decrease that, but expand that statistic.
Moving on. Cable companies will expand the trend of producing their own productions and original programming. We'll have more options for what we watch. The downside will be fewer programs or events that draw us together as a society as in the past.
Doug:
I think there will be increased public protests. That can draw us together as a society.
David:
Why would there be more protests? You've already set your mind to being unhappy with the way things are. That sounds pretty bitter, with a dose of sour grapes.
2017 will be a gloomy place in the Doug Blank paradigm. Come on over to the land of hope and change once in a while. And this time around, we'll see if the change part of the equation comes to fruition.
Virtual reality will also expand in new and different ways. Devices like Google Glass will find new and interesting ways to entertain us, and we'll develop new and useful ways to use the technology for business.
Doug:
I think you are right about VR. But the big technology breakthroughs in 2017 will be in what is now called "Deep Learning"---neural networks that can learn patterns and associations between anything. This is what I did my Ph.D. research in, so this is one thing to look forward to for me, personally. But it may also lead to many people having to look for new jobs as automated systems take over tasks like truck-driving.
David:
The US will become energy independent, and the gas and oil we produce and export will limit the ability of Iran and Russia to exert their influences around the world. Cheap energy will also provide the people in struggling third-world countries a better life. We will certainly finish off some pipelines that have been put on hold, not for real reasons, but just for politics. It will be safer to transport oil and gas through those pipelines than over the road or by train. Many of Obama's regulations limiting exploration and energy independence will be undone.
Doug:
Nuclear proliferation? World war? Increased harassment of minorities? Increase in pollution? Decreased funding in federal science initiatives? Heightened aggression against predominately Muslim countries? Erosion of the press? Collapse of public education? Incompetence in the Trump administration leading to unexpected consequences? Scary times ahead.
David:
We've already seen increased funding for science in the field of medicine. The bipartisan bill just passed, so that prediction of yours is already reality. And last year we saw an increase in general science funding, particularly for NASA.
Doug:
Oh, sorry for the confusion: when I make a prediction, I usually am referring to the future. I think I see why there is so much hope if you get your news from Trump's Twitter feed: he takes credit for hope and progress that he didn't have anything to do with. I am all for hope, but not if you don't understand where progress comes from.
David:
Trump didn't have anything to do with the funding for research, and he didn't take any credit for it. It just is the reality of the world. Progress doesn't come from big government.
A University of Michigan poll indicates more Americans have hope for the future now than they have for the past 10 years. I have more hope. But I predict liberals will continue to try to put roadblocks in front of every effort to make things better for average Americans this year, if it hurts Trump in the process. All of their "we'll all get along after the election" rhetoric will be proven to be a load of hogwash. I hope I'm wrong about that, but it's looking like that's my one prediction you can take to the bank.
Well, another year has passed. What do you think the next year has in store for us? What are your predictions for 2017?
Doug:
How could anyone have any idea what 2017 will be like? Our President-Elect continues to hold rallies, and uses Twitter to throw out 140 characters of misspelled, scary quips. I really have no idea---and having no idea makes for uncertain times. I am not hopeful.
David:
But many Americans are hopeful. Especially small business owners.
Obamacare will disappear. A new health-care system will replace it with a whole new world of insurances available on the internet across state lines. You'll be able to compare prices and benefits while sitting at your desk at home. There will be sites that will review different companies and policies to allow you to get just what you need. It will be much better, and much more affordable. The new version of health-care reform will fulfill the promises that Obama put forth, but failed to deliver. It may prove that we had to experience the failures of Obamacare to really decide what we truly needed.
Doug:
The only thing that will ever make healthcare much more affordable is to make it cheaper. And the only way to make healthcare cheaper is to regulate costs. But that won't happen for many years.
David:
Not true at all. You can look at procedures that are purely elective for example. Corrective eye surgery or plastic surgery are not covered by insurance, so there is competition within the marketplace. Prices for those procedures continue to drop because of that competition. When people know the costs, and they have skin in the game, they shop around. Of course, that won't work for everything. Emergencies will still occur, and you'll go to the closest emergency room.
You might be careful about your suggestions. Now that the cost of higher education has the attention of Washington lawmakers, regulating the cost of higher education may become a reality. I predict there will be legislation this year addressing the costs of education in some fashion.
The economy will continue to improve. Businesses will begin building new plants and factories here at home, and even foreign companies will follow suit. The main reason for this will be simple logistics. If you can build the goods here and sell them here, you save shipping costs. If taxes are lowered, and expensive regulations minimized, the climate for growth will improve. Economic growth this year will exceed 3.5%.
Doug:
Without an increased minimum wage, many Americans won't be able to buy stuff. Without a strong middle class, we won't be making products for us, but for other countries.
David:
I don't believe there is any data to support what you've just said. America is currently the largest importer of goods in the world. We have huge trade deficits. Getting more people to work will not decrease that, but expand that statistic.
Moving on. Cable companies will expand the trend of producing their own productions and original programming. We'll have more options for what we watch. The downside will be fewer programs or events that draw us together as a society as in the past.
Doug:
I think there will be increased public protests. That can draw us together as a society.
David:
Why would there be more protests? You've already set your mind to being unhappy with the way things are. That sounds pretty bitter, with a dose of sour grapes.
2017 will be a gloomy place in the Doug Blank paradigm. Come on over to the land of hope and change once in a while. And this time around, we'll see if the change part of the equation comes to fruition.
Virtual reality will also expand in new and different ways. Devices like Google Glass will find new and interesting ways to entertain us, and we'll develop new and useful ways to use the technology for business.
Doug:
I think you are right about VR. But the big technology breakthroughs in 2017 will be in what is now called "Deep Learning"---neural networks that can learn patterns and associations between anything. This is what I did my Ph.D. research in, so this is one thing to look forward to for me, personally. But it may also lead to many people having to look for new jobs as automated systems take over tasks like truck-driving.
David:
The US will become energy independent, and the gas and oil we produce and export will limit the ability of Iran and Russia to exert their influences around the world. Cheap energy will also provide the people in struggling third-world countries a better life. We will certainly finish off some pipelines that have been put on hold, not for real reasons, but just for politics. It will be safer to transport oil and gas through those pipelines than over the road or by train. Many of Obama's regulations limiting exploration and energy independence will be undone.
Doug:
Nuclear proliferation? World war? Increased harassment of minorities? Increase in pollution? Decreased funding in federal science initiatives? Heightened aggression against predominately Muslim countries? Erosion of the press? Collapse of public education? Incompetence in the Trump administration leading to unexpected consequences? Scary times ahead.
David:
We've already seen increased funding for science in the field of medicine. The bipartisan bill just passed, so that prediction of yours is already reality. And last year we saw an increase in general science funding, particularly for NASA.
Doug:
Oh, sorry for the confusion: when I make a prediction, I usually am referring to the future. I think I see why there is so much hope if you get your news from Trump's Twitter feed: he takes credit for hope and progress that he didn't have anything to do with. I am all for hope, but not if you don't understand where progress comes from.
David:
Trump didn't have anything to do with the funding for research, and he didn't take any credit for it. It just is the reality of the world. Progress doesn't come from big government.
A University of Michigan poll indicates more Americans have hope for the future now than they have for the past 10 years. I have more hope. But I predict liberals will continue to try to put roadblocks in front of every effort to make things better for average Americans this year, if it hurts Trump in the process. All of their "we'll all get along after the election" rhetoric will be proven to be a load of hogwash. I hope I'm wrong about that, but it's looking like that's my one prediction you can take to the bank.
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