What kind of world do you hope future generations will have and what can we do to make that dream a reality?

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Chianna-@reddit

It’s kinda sweet that you think that this iteration of species is going to survive. It most probably wont.

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MurdockMow@reddit

Get the right people in office, we’re so cooked.

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-Intrepid-Path-@reddit

there will be no world for future generations very soon

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LocaliserEstablished@reddit

Classic Reddit that this is the first reply

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RecentTwo544@reddit

Yes. Why will there be "no world" and "very soon"? What exactly will cause this?

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RecentTwo544@reddit

I was worried when the Ukraine situation kicked off, but way less so now. Speak to anyone who lived through the cold war and they'll laugh at you given how less likely it is now.

Global warming isn't going to be a mass extinction event even in a worst worst case scenario, and it would take so long we'll be long gone anyway. I don't want to sound flippant (and I am a staunch environmentalist) but it would largely affect the third world, not us. And we're doing very very well at mitigating the effects in fairness. Can always do more, but most of the world is taking it very seriously.

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-Intrepid-Path-@reddit

I appreciate it's going to be after we are gone, but it's going to be relatively soon the grand scheme of our planet, and the question was about future generations, not ours

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willglynning@reddit

Reddit is increasingly an echo chamber of relentlessly negative doomposters.

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ARobertNotABob@reddit

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." - Alphonse Karr
(The more things change, the more they stay the same)

"Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." - Einsten (and others)(attrib)

Until we embrace each other and learn to work together globally, our future is very uncertain.
We are beginning to push civilisation boundaries in terms of sustainability against demand for energy, food, water.
When fauna/flora populations face insufficient resources, there is either die off, or leaving the area as options.
We can't yet leave. We really need to do something about that.

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Frosty_Leg4438@reddit

Re “what can we do”… encourage your friends and older relatives not to look for fall for any easy options at the next election.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

Literally none of the parties are equipped to prepare us for what's coming unfortunately.

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Frosty_Leg4438@reddit

That’s arguable, but a number will very clearly make it worse. If we all influence the people we know, that’s the best way to stop people voting them in.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

Agreed, but even in the best case scenario I don't think we're equipped to even deal with some of our biggest problems. It's like the difference between a managed declined and an unmanaged one. One is clearly preferable but still not great all the same.

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coffeewalnut08@reddit

Agreed. Do your research before making a decision, and use objective/neutral sources. I recommend the BBC, Reuters, TheyWorkForYou.com (to check MPs' voting records), and parliament.uk to check on legislation.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

Voteforpolicies.org is always my favourite.

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iffyClyro@reddit

I might be going against the grain here but the world isn’t such a bad place as it is right now when you compare with the past.

Less poverty and less inequality would improve everything across the board.

The cost of living stabilising a bit really wouldn’t hurt either.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

It's alright right now but the problem is that everything is predicted to just kinda get worse

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Linkyjinx@reddit

They all say that, it’s not getting worse imo it’s just evolving, “doomers” have been around predicting the worst outcome for literally thousands of years - thee end is nigh -!!!

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

It's not about predicting the worst outcome, it's literally the current trajectory and the most realistic outcome. You can hope that things will get better but without any basis for that hope, it's completely blind.

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JadedAlready@reddit

all we have to do (and it IS easy, our politicians are just allergic to good decisions) is decouple yearly GDP growth from the standard of living, stop using it as a measure of how well we're doing. we're in a place where we can automate more and more shitty jobs, so a declining population shouldn't cause a crisis, only mismanagement will

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

Except we need that GDP growth to fund retirement/UBI. The shitty jobs being automated also arent as shitty as the extremely shitty but necessary care work that needs to be done

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SentientRon@reddit

What's the incentive to reduce poverty, how does it benefit the elite?

Because the middle class is a new thing that was created to increase productivity and lower resistance to control

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Dr_Frankenstone@reddit

Agree. We live in a time and place where we can be healthier and more secure than ever. It’s not perfect but there are a lot of things to be grateful for, in the UK.

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Initial-Tax-7217@reddit

They'll have a wonderful world with no money and dodgy weather.

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RecentTwo544@reddit

Nice to see some optimism and largely sensible rational replies here.

Sure some things aren't great - the main issue economically in the UK is the cost of housing. Even increases in food prices are not that mental when you look at old shopping receipts that occasionally get posted on Reddit and the like. Inflation adjusted most stuff is cheaper now than in the 90s. Plus the choice is much better.

Housing is the one thing that is becoming/has long been a nightmare for people.

But by pretty much every other metric the world is a much better place than it was in decades past. Technology alone is something most people cannot even fathom despite often remembering a time before most of it existed. It snuck up slowly and gradually enough that people just kind of accept it and don't stop to think "holy shit, this is astounding in ways I cannot fully comprehend."

I can't think of many things outside of the cost of a house that aren't better, in many cases immesurably better, than they were even when I was born at the end of the 1980s.

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ArtAccomplished1651@reddit

star trek, replicators for food and machinery, everyone can simply pursue personal goals

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CryptographerMore944@reddit

I want to live in the Federation not under the Ferengi.

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Fit-Bedroom-7645@reddit

Being a billionaire will be illegal, punishable by death. The world will heal as most billionaires are forced to donate excess to good causes. Tax takings will allow for proper investment in society. Lol, just kidding, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer forever.

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coinsntings@reddit

What I want them to have and how to achieve?

Access to decent Public transport - look at the map of the beeching cuts, basically reverse that. Replace buses in densely populated areas with trams. After reinstating beeching cut lines branch out to more rural areas with trains/buses.

Cheap Electricity - go green basically. Solar on roofs that can support, wind turbines, invest in nuclear. Decouple from gas pricing.

Access to Clean Water that's publicly owned and doesn't pollute. - remove water company bail outs and replace with government buying portions of the company at a time to value of the bailout. Government gets first offer before private investors when fundraising is needed. After x% ownership the government can buyout at discount. If partially government owned then all planned dividends are put to maintenance, fully government owned it goes without saying maintenance is key. Also invest in increased capacity in sewage treatment to prevent overflows.

Affordable vocational education and fair Student loans - Increase apprenticeship funding, trades pathways, increase value in vocational experience. Also reduce fees on vocational degrees assuming time done in public sector. Lower future debt by lowering student loan interest rates, the amount written off will be high but if we lower the rate that can lower the write off. People still won't pay it back in full, that shouldn't have an impact on future generations to the extent it will.

No more half baked government projects (like HS2) - all permissions given before work starts. Penalties for contracts that go beyond their alloted time (and bonuses for within). Multi year guarantees and maintenance period with a part of payment spread across the guarantee period.

NHS/good fast healthcare that can handle capacity - invest invest invest, in education, placements, experience. Re include dental and optical health.

There would be Minimal cost on Clean water would be buy outs rather than bail outs, no change from general spending. Electricity, solar as a policy for private non residential builds to have on their roofs (eg supermarkets). Private entity absorbs cost. Government projects, already something we spend on, just problem proof it before starting and incentivise contractors to do it properly.

Then High cost transport, wind turbines/nuclear high build cost. Vocational training and NHS high labour cost.

Funding? Through a number of cuts and new taxes:

Means test benefits that aren't already means tested. Ring fence certain incomes (transport profits go back into transport, water back into water etc etc). Ex pat tax (a fee to cease being a tax resident of the UK). Land tax on unused land thats been brought for development.

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Faye-Lockwood@reddit

There are so many problems in the world that I'm not going to list all of them, but I'll talk about the one that's most personal to me.

I want future generations to have total freedom to be whoever they want to be, obviously this extends to much larger topics like gender identity and sexuality, but I'm also talking on a smaller scale: do you know how many cis people I've met who hate their names, but feel like that's not a valid reason to change it?

We're pressured to live for other people, all of us, everyone tries to shape us.

and the fact that when I was slightly overweight, people called me fat, and when I was slightly underweight people called me too skinny?

Either way I don't want comments, it's my choice.

Or the fact that some people get pressured into botox, or filler, but then on the flip side we still have workplace discrimination for tattoos, or split tongues?

Let people look how they want. Both ways .
I strongly believe that our bodies are the only things that we truly own 100%, we've been priced out of homeowning, subscriptions to everything is becoming more common, corporations want us to own nothing and be happy with that.

I hate that, so at the very least, someone should be allowed to be as "natural" or "unnatural" as they want, they should be able to express themselves however feels right, obviously doctors should still be involved when it comes to drastic diet or lifestyle changes, but apart from that?

I want you to be able to be a completely different person if you're not happy with who you are, without a million questions about if you're valid, or if you're seeking attention, or if you got that boob job just to make someone else happy, or if you're worried about what your tattoos will look like when you get older, or, or, or, etc, etc, etc.

I'm tired of being interrogated, I'm tired of having to explain, and I'm tired of "body trends" coming in and out of fashion.

Let people chase the body they want, use the name they want, be who they want, I don't want the next generation to have as much pushback as I've had.

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JohnCasey3306@reddit

I guarantee that what you want for them, won't be they want for themselves.

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comeinkowalski@reddit

I'd hope that it would exist to start with.

I think the rate of change to enable that to be a reality is currently... 'glacial'. There are too many absolute fucking clowns in power globally on about more drilling, more oil extraction and more tree chopping to line their short armed; deep pocket way of life. We're right on the cusp of a renewable generation and the fight against it is literally only coming from complete fucking benders who don't give a fuck about you or anybody who comes after you. Yeah. I'd start with that. Getting rid of them is what I mean by the way. The huge yaught dwelling non tax paying child bending fuckwits we seem to be quite happy voting in and then continuing to give money to.

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coffeewalnut08@reddit

Agreed. I don't trust anyone who's a climate-change denier or who wants to scrap Net Zero. They are contributing to the problem.

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Linkyjinx@reddit

In 20 or 30 years every younger person will be blaming Generation X and Alfa for every problem, at the moment 2026 “Boomers” are blamed for everything , as people don’t take account of history and how things work in patterns over time in cycles, the TikTok generations and 10 second memories are going to be blamed for the algorithms that brainwashed them. Business as usual 🤷‍♀️

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Responsible7ohKinda@reddit

The best we can hope for at this point is that the world isn’t radioactive.

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Sad_Restaurant_5276@reddit

They are creating the future if its rough they have only themselves to blame.

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thedeadenddolls@reddit

I don't think it's as bleak as social media proposes it to be. Hell boomers and gen x did have it very lucky but any generation before that had it worse off than us (gen z).

As for the future itself I think love and compassion for your family and community - treat your community like you already have children and like each child within it could be your own. Of course I have fears because of war, AI and climate change but these things are always overblown especially in first-world nations like the UK.

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coffeewalnut08@reddit

I want my kids and grandkids to have as follows:

• affordable rented housing (I feel like ownership is a pyramid scheme that increases selfishness, extreme wealth inequality and NIMBYism)

• excellent public transport (powered by clean energy), to ensure maximum access to jobs, education and leisure. Including in rural areas

• their homes powered by clean homegrown energy, including solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and sometimes nuclear

• all our national parks adequately reforested

• clean streets, coastline and countryside, no heavy litter or fly-tipping

• clean rivers, lakes and sea. No constant sewage spills into them

• apprenticeships and trades treated with equal value to university degrees, with government support for both

• An NHS that’s still free at point of use.

There’s more of course, but this is the backbone of a dignified life in my opinion.

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Educational_Cow111@reddit

You know what you’re talking about 👏

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TheZamboon@reddit

I want a world where water, electricity, internet are free, for every home.

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selfawareusername@reddit

I think the most important things are ensuring there are good well paying jobs. Good education (including those who don't want to do traditional). We got obsessed with sending people to uni when we could do better with trades etc.

Housing is obviously key. We need to accept house prices shouldn't be allowed to keep rising, try and build more so rent and mortgages don't drain wages.

Also find a way to improve our arts scene. It's one of our best exports and soft power but it's become dominated by those who can afford to do it unpaid.

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Andries89@reddit

Unity, mono polarity as a species with central planning on how to save earth

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

We can only hope that the path we're on changes course pretty rapidly. The only real hope there is that AI will sort of save everything, but that's a pretty dim one as I personally think it's more likely it creates mass unemployment and a deeply unequal society.

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No_Nectarine3418@reddit

Unfortunately society just keeps repeating same mistakes generation after generation. We should have learned from all the wars previously, and all the mistakes that led to it. But greed and hate always prevail.

I fear now we’re more selfish and lonely than any previous generation. And hope somehow society can avoid relying too heavily on AI and technology.

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Puzzledandhangry@reddit

It’s not bleak, it’s just very different. Imagine what our grandfathers thought when they were walking into ww2 war zones. Or my grandmother saving old wrapping paper because there was a shortage of everything. Or having their food rationed.

The future will be what it will be. Each generation adapts. (Mostly).

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