December 31 - A New Year's Retrospective on Domestic Political Issues and Future Trends That Might Shape 2015

Full Program
 

Today on this New Year’s holiday we examine the important domestic political issues and social trends in 2014 and look ahead to what might emerge in 2015. Stephan Schwartz, a Research Associate of Cognitive Sciences at the Laboratories for Fundamental Research and the editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net, where he identifies and analyses trends that are affecting the future, joins us to discuss the red/blue political divide in the country that was glaringly apparent in the last election. With Republicans dominating rural America and Democrats concentrated in urban America, we look ahead to a possible devolution of power to the states as the more successful blue states like California and New York tire of subsidizing the red states in the south. We will look ahead as our divided country heads in different directions with the blue states moving into the 21st century embracing progressive social change and economic innovation while the red states move back to the 19th century in economic terms and the 17th century in social values. We also explore the growing disgust with our politics as fewer Americans vote, while record amounts of money are spent on campaigns, and the growing scandal of income inequality which is likely to get worse for younger Americans saddled with student debt before they even get to the job market which is being steadily downsized to accommodate what the 1% claim is the necessary result of global competition.