With just two days left in this year, a decades-old poll is revealing some interesting things people thought would be happening in this country by now. Way back in 1998, Gallup and “USA Today” polled 1,055 Americans about their best predictions for a year far off in the future: 2025.
Now, you have to remember what life in the U.S. was like 27 years ago. Bill Clinton was facing impeachment proceedings, “Titanic” was sweeping at the Oscars and most homes still used landline phones. So, things were pretty different back then, but it turns out, people were surprisingly spot on with some of their predictions for 2025.
- More than two-thirds of Americans (69%) predicted that the U.S. would have elected a Black president by now.
- The same number (69%) believed that space travel would be common for ordinary Americans.
- Most thought gay marriage would be legal and common (74%).
- Three-quarters believed a “deadly new disease” would have emerged.
- Many also predicted that drug use, like marijuana, would be commonplace (64%), and that AIDS would be cured (60%).
- More than half also thought most people would be doing their jobs from home (52%) and that shopping on the Internet would replace most stores (56%).
But some predictions didn’t hold up as well:
- About two-thirds (66%) thought the U.S. would have elected a female president by now.
- More than half thought we’d have a cure for cancer (59%).
- And 61% predicted that “people will routinely live to be 100 years old.”
The poll also asked what people thought about the direction the country was taking:
- While 70% thought quality of life would improve for the rich, people were split on how things would go for the middle class, and most thought life would get worse for the poor.
- Almost 80% thought people would have less personal privacy in 2025 and 57% thought we’d have less personal freedom.
- In 1998, 60% of Americans said they were satisfied with how things were going in the U.S.
- Today, only 24% say the same.
Source: CNN⠀
