Herb Meyer Predicted the USSR's collapse and Remains Ever the Optimist about 21st Century World

American Spectator ^ | Fall 2016 | Grant Wishard, Paul Kengor

[GoldenState_Rose]

Herb Meyer would be commended by the intelligence community for his extraordinary 1983 memo predicting that America was going to win the Cold War — this at a time when virtually no one (other than Ronald Reagan and Bill Casey) thought winning was possible.

Today his task remains the same.

It should come as a revelation to those glued to the 24-hour news cycle that things aren’t as bad “out there” as we think.

The evening news never reports the countless airplanes that land on time and unharmed, or the daily billions who walk through malls and shopping centers without getting shot. Though you may not see it in your paycheck, the modern world is becoming richer every day...Every year, 50-150 million people emerge from poverty around the world. Meaning, Meyer predicts, within a generation the world will accomplish what was thought to be impossible — for the first time in history, the overwhelming majority of human beings will not be poor. The greatest underreported story of our time is the emergence of a global middle class, whose demand for goods and services is set to produce an economic sonic boom.

To Americans specifically, the horizon is especially promising: The six industries Meyer believes will dominate the 21st century are led by U.S. innovation, broadly organized as food, fuel, infrastructure, healthcare, education, and entertainment. If he’s correct, the U.S. will remain an unrivaled economic superpower even while many other countries begin to flourish and join the global marketplace.

But don’t think for a minute that the man who predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union is naïve. He readily and obviously acknowledges the challenges...

[SunkenCiv]

The greatest underreported story of our time is the emergence of a global middle class, whose demand for goods and services is set to produce an economic sonic boom. To Americans specifically, the horizon is especially promising: The six industries Meyer believes will dominate the 21st century are led by U.S. innovation, broadly organized as food, fuel, infrastructure, healthcare, education, and entertainment. If he’s correct, the U.S. will remain an unrivaled economic superpower even while many other countries begin to flourish and join the global marketplace.

Thanks GoldenState_Rose. And to keep it, we need to take back control of entertainment.

• The World a Century from Now

[353FMG]

>>To Americans specifically, the horizon is especially promising:<<

.
Not when we consider all the muzzies and RATs in our future.

[zeestephen]

In my opinion, the most important factor in the USSR collapse was Mikhail Gorbachev.

If Putin or any other Soviet hardliner had gained power in 1985, we would still have the USSR, and they would still control most of Eastern Europe.

[AdmSmith]

The collapse of the Soviet Union was due to the lack of market economy and this: